Senate Bill No. 541

(By Senator Sprouse)

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[Introduced March 21, 2001; referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.]

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A BILL to amend and reenact section fourteen, article one, chapter three of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended; and to amend and reenact section twenty-one, article five of said chapter, all relating to providing that West Virginia's electoral college votes shall be proportionally awarded to the presidential candidate receiving the most votes in each congressional district, with two at-large electoral votes going to the presidential candidate receiving the most votes statewide.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section fourteen, article one, chapter three of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted; and that section twenty-one, article five of said chapter be amended and reenacted, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 1. GENERAL PROVISIONS AND DEFINITIONS.
§3-1-14. Presidential electors; how chosen; duties; vacancies; compensation.

Electors of president and vice president of the United States shall be nominated as provided in section twenty-one of article five of this chapter but their names shall be omitted from the general election ballot, as provided in section two of article six of this chapter, to be voted on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November in the year nineteen hundred and one thousand nine hundred sixty-four and every fourth year thereafter.
The presidential electors shall meet in the office of the governor at the capital capitol of this state, on the day now appointed, or which shall hereafter be appointed, by the Congress of the United States and vote for the president and for the vice president of the United States in the manner prescribed by the constitution and the laws of the United States. A presidential elector representing a congressional district shall cast his or her vote for the presidential candidate receiving the most votes in that congressional district, and the at-large presidential electors shall cast their votes for the presidential candidate receiving the most votes throughout the state. If any of the electors so chosen fail to attend at the time appointed, the electors present shall appoint an elector in place of each one so failing to attend, and every elector so appointed shall be entitled to vote in the same manner as if he or she had been originally chosen by the people.
Each presidential elector shall receive as compensation the sum of ten dollars a day for attending such the meeting, including the time spent in traveling to and from the place of meeting and in addition thereto the sum of ten cents for every mile necessarily traveled in going to and returning from the place of meeting, by the most direct route.
 ARTICLE 5. PRIMARY ELECTIONS AND NOMINATING PROCEDURES.
§3-5-21. Party conventions to nominate presidential electors; candidates; organization; duties.
Candidates for presidential electors shall be nominated by the delegated representatives of the political party assembled in a state convention to be held during the months of June, July or August next preceding any general election at which presidential electors are to be elected. One presidential elector shall be nominated from each congressional district in the state, and two at-large presidential electors shall be nominated. The state executive committee of the political party, by resolution, shall designate the place and fix the date of such the convention, shall prescribe the number of delegates thereto, and shall apportion the delegates among the several counties of the state in proportion to the vote cast in the state for the party's candidate for governor at the last preceding general election at which a governor was elected. The state executive committee shall also ascertain and designate all offices for which candidates are to be nominated at such the convention.
At least sixty days prior to the date fixed for holding any state convention, the chairman of the party's state executive committee shall cause to be delivered to the party's county executive committee in each county of the state a copy of the resolutions fixing the time and place for holding the state convention and prescribing the number of delegates from each county to the convention. Within ten days after receipt of the copy of such the resolutions, the party executive committee of each county shall meet and, by resolution, shall apportion the delegates to the state convention among the several magisterial districts of the county, on a basis of the vote received in the county by the candidate of the party for governor at the last preceding general election at which a governor was elected, but in such an apportionment of county delegates each magisterial district shall be entitled to at least one delegate to such the state convention. The party's county executive committee shall call a meeting of the members of the political party in mass convention in the several magisterial districts of the county, which district meeting shall be held at least thirty days prior to the date fixed for the state convention and at which meeting the members of the political party in each magisterial district shall elect the number of delegates to which such the district is entitled in the state convention.
The meeting place in the magisterial district shall be as central and convenient as can reasonably be selected, and all recognized members of the political party shall be entitled to participate in any such mass convention and in the selection of delegates. Notice of the time and place of holding the several magisterial district mass conventions and of the person who shall act as temporary chairman thereof shall be given by publication as a Class II-O legal advertisement in compliance with the provisions of article three, chapter fifty-nine of this code, and the publication area for such the publication shall be the county. The first publication shall be made not more than fifteen days and the second publication shall be made not less than five days prior to the date fixed for holding the convention. The notice published shall specify the number of delegates which each magisterial district in the county is entitled to elect to the state convention.
Upon assembling, the mass convention of each magisterial district shall choose a chairman and a secretary, who, within five days after the holding of such the convention, shall certify to the chairman of the state executive committee of the political party and the chairman of the county committee of the political party, the names and addresses of the parties selected as delegates to the state convention.
All contests over the selection of delegates to conventions shall be heard and determined by the party executive committee of the county from which the delegates are chosen, and such the county executive committee shall, upon written petition of any contest, meet for such hearings and determinations within ten days after the holding of such the magisterial district mass convention. The circuit court of the county and the supreme court of appeals of the state shall have concurrent original jurisdiction to review, by mandamus or other proper proceeding, the decision of a county executive committee in any contest.
The delegates chosen and certified by and from the several magisterial districts in the state, and, in the event of any contest, those prevailing in the contest, shall make up the state convention. The number present of those entitled to participate in any convention shall cast the entire vote to which the county is entitled in such the convention, and it shall require a majority vote to nominate any candidate for office.
All nominations made at state conventions shall be certified within fifteen days thereafter, by the chairman and the secretary of the convention, to the secretary of state, who shall certify them to the clerk of the circuit court of each county concerned, and the names of the persons so nominated shall be printed upon the regular ballot to be voted at the ensuing general election, except that the names of the presidential elector candidates shall may not be printed thereon.
The delegates to any state convention may formulate and promulgate such a party platform or declaration of party principles as to them shall seem advisable.



NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide that West Virginia's electoral college votes shall be proportionally awarded to the presidential candidate receiving the most votes in each congressional district, with two at-large electoral votes going to the presidential candidate receiving the most votes statewide.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.