Senate Bill No. 476
(By Senator Chafin)
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[Introduced February 7, 2007; referred to the Committee on the
Judiciary; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §50-1-1 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to the election of magistrates.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §50-1-1 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 1. COURTS AND OFFICERS.
§50-1-1. Magistrate court created.
(a) There is
hereby created in each county of
this the state
a magistrate court
with such numbers consisting of the number of
magistrates for each court
as are hereafter provided. There shall
be elected by the voters of each county, at the general election to
be held in the year one thousand nine hundred seventy-six, and in
every fourth year thereafter, such number of magistrates as is
provided in section two of this article. The filing fee for the
office of magistrate shall be one percent of the annual salary.
that is authorized by the provisions of this article. Each
magistrate shall be elected by the voters of the county in which he or she will serve. The term of magistrates
shall be for is four
years and
shall begin begins on the first day of January of the
year following the year of election.
The filing fee for the office
of magistrate is one percent of the annual salary.
(b) Beginning with the primary and general elections to be
conducted in the year two thousand and eight, in every county there
shall be, for election purposes, numbered divisions corresponding
to the number of magistrates in each county. Each magistrate shall
be elected at large from the entire county. In each numbered
division of the county, the candidates for nomination or election
shall be voted upon and the votes cast for the candidates in each
division shall be tallied separately from the votes cast for
candidates in other numbered divisions within the county. The
candidate receiving the highest number of the votes cast within a
numbered division shall be either nominated or elected, whatever
the case may be.
(c) In counties where voting machines or electronic voting
systems are used, the procedures of section eleven, article four,
chapter three and section twelve, article four-a of said chapter
three of this code
shall apply respectively to the election of
magistrates in the same manner as they apply to the election of
members of the House of Delegates.
Notwithstanding the provisions of section seven, article five,
chapter three of this code, for purposes of the primary election to
be held in the year one thousand nine hundred seventy- six, the
last day for filing certificates of candidacy for the office of magistrate shall be extended to the twenty-seventh day of February
of that year.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide that magistrates
of a county are elected from numbered divisions similar to the
election of circuit judges.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.
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