The West Virginia House of Delegates is considering a bill that would allow some people to vote in municipalities they don’t live in. A polling station at Edgewood Summit in Charleston, W.Va., during the 2024 primary election. (Lori Kersey | West Virginia Watch)
Certain West Virginia residents would be able to vote in municipal elections where they don’t live under a bill state lawmakers are considering.
House Bill 2381 was before the House Judiciary’s subcommittee on legal services Friday morning. The subcommittee referred it on to the main Judiciary Committee for consideration.
Under the bill, a nonresident who lives within the county where the municipality is located would be eligible to vote in a city election if:
- They’ve paid city fees or charges in the last year.
- They have owned property there for at least 60 consecutive days prior to applying to vote in the election.
- They own at least 25% of a business that has paid business and occupation tax or privilege tax in that municipality within the last year of the election.
During a committee hearing about the bill last week, Del. Mike Hornby, R-Berkeley, said the bill would ensure that business owners who contribute to a municipality by paying fees, owning property or owning a business have a say in local governance.
“House Bill 2381 presents the opportunity to ensure that municipal elections reflect the voices of those who are financially invested in the communities they help sustain,” Hornby said, reading from a prepared statement in place of the bill’s lead sponsor, Del. Geno Chiarelli, R-Monongalia. “This bill is about fairness. It recognizes that many West Virginia citizens who live outside of a municipality still contribute to its economic and civic life, whether through paying municipal service fees, owning property or running businesses that generate tax revenue. These individuals play a vital role in shaping the cities and towns around them.”
Nonresidents would be limited to voting on citywide issues and at-large positions, and could not vote for ward or district representatives, Hornby said. Nonresident voters would apply to vote through the clerk of the county and provide documentation of their property ownership, business stake or municipal fee payment, he said.
Michelle Holly, the acting president of the West Virginia County Clerk’s Association, testified last week that the bill would be “logistically almost impossible” for clerks to implement in a secure and private way.
“West Virginia’s gold standard for registering you to vote is based on where you lay your head at night. So our whole entire system is set up on addresses,” Holly said. “That’s how we place you in your precinct. That’s how we know who your delegate is, who your senator is — whether or not you live in city limits.”
During the meeting Friday, Del. Keith Marple, R-Harrison, spoke against the bill, saying he’d heard from several municipalities, mayors and citizens that they opposed the legislation.
“They strongly oppose this bill, that people not living in their community are going to come in and take over their city government, and it’s going to ruin their city,” he said. “And people that live in a municipality will have no control over their own village, their own town, their own city. I strongly oppose this.”
The House of Delegates on Thursday rejected a bill that would have allowed businesses and corporations in the state to directly donate up to $2,800 to political candidates. Delegates voted 54-41 against House Bill 2719.
The legal services subcommittee on Friday also advanced legislation that would require voters to present photo identification to poll workers when voting. House Bill 3016 is one of Secretary of State Kris Warner’s legislative priorities for this session.
“The integrity of our processes, systems and personnel is at the heart of our voter confidence. The names of deceased people, convicted felons and out of state citizens will continue to be removed from the voter rolls,” Warner told reporters during the West Virginia Press Association’s Legislative Lookahead event last month. “This session I’ll support the implementation of photo ID for voters and work tirelessly to ensure every eligible citizen will have the right and opportunity to vote.”
The bill would repeal current sections of law that allows voters to present nonphoto identification, including hunting and fishing licenses, credit cards and utility bills.
The bill would also require that people who are legal noncitizens of the country be issued driver’s licenses that include identification as noncitizens so that the driver’s licenses may not be used to fraudulently vote. State code requires that registered voters be U.S. citizens and legal residents of the state and county where they’re voting.
Bill sponsor Del. Erica Moore, R-Roane said she expects the Judiciary Committee to make changes to the bill when it takes it up, including possible changes to how the IDs are labeled “noncitizen.”
Putting “noncitizen” on a person’s photo may give someone viewing the ID the wrong impression that the person is in the country illegally, she said.
“We know as legislators that they’re not going to get an ID unless they’re a legal noncitizen here, and they’ve they have a visa, they’re here for work, possibly as an example, and they might have a driver’s license for five years while they’re here doing what they’ve been approved to do in the United States,” Moore said. “The general public, however, may not understand it that way. And so, seeing ‘noncitizen’ might give somebody the idea that they’re here illegally, and we wouldn’t want to target anyone or have them have undue stress because of that.”
The American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia is against the bill, saying it’s among the bills that lawmakers are considering that would further restrict voting in the state.
“HB 3016 is designed to intimidate already vulnerable populations and preserve the status quo by depressing voter turnout,” Communications director Billy Wolfe said in an email “Voters should take note that elected leaders are spending their limited time in session preserving their own hold on power and picking on visitors to our country rather than fixing our 50th-in-the-nation education system or getting southern West Virginians much-needed flood relief.”
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