Summary

About

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Contact

Email: Elections Division

Locations

Elections Division
State Capitol Building
Charleston, WV 25305
Phone: 866.767.868

Web Links

• Elections Division
• Twitter
• YouTube
• Facebook

Registering to Vote

General Information

Who can register

To register in West Virginia you must:

• be a citizen of the United States
• live in West Virginia in the county in which you are registering
• be 18 years old, or to vote in the primary be 17 years old and turning 18 before the general election
• not be under conviction, probation, or parole for a felony, treason, or election bribery
• not have been judged “mentally incompetent” in a court of competent jurisdiction

How to register

1. Use our Register to Vote form below to fill out the National Voter Registration Form.
2. Sign and date your form. This is very important!
3. Mail or hand-deliver your completed form to the address we provide.
4. Make sure you register before the voter registration deadline.

Election Day registration
N/A

Voting Rights restoration

If you have been convicted of a felony and have questions about whether you can register to vote, visit Restore Your Vote to determine your eligibility.

Registration Status (form)

New Registration (form)

Voting

General Information

Voting as a Student

Learn more from Campus Vote Project about voting for students.

Overseas and Military Voting

You are a Military or Overseas voter if you are in uniformed services, living overseas OR a spouse or dependent of a uniformed services voter. To get registered and vote, you can utilize Overseas Vote Foundation.

If you have additional questions about elections and voting overseas you can use our state specific elections official directory or contact the Overseas Vote Foundation.

Voting with Disabilities

If your health or disability does not permit you to go to the polls, you may get a mail in ballot. Be sure to apply early enough so that your application reaches the clerk at least six days before the election. If you are permanently unable to go to the polls, you may apply to be placed on the permanent absentee voting list to vote by mail. A doctor’s statement must be filed with your application, but once approved, the clerk will automatically send you an absentee ballot before each election.

If you vote at the polls and need assistance, you may choose a person to assist you, or two poll workers of opposing political parties may read the ballot to you or help you mark your ballot (only poll workers may mark your ballot). If you need them in order to vote, you may use braille navigation, audio reading of the ballot or touch screen interfaces to help you cast you ballot.

If you are unable to enter the polling location, curbside voting is available, or you may request a precinct change. Please contact your County Clerk for more information.

You can also utilize the American Association of People With Disabilities (AAPD) resource.

Early Voting

The County Clerk is responsible for early voting. The locations will be in the County Courthouse, annex or on the property of the courthouse. The regular period of early voting begins 13 days before the election and ends 3 days before the election. Voting is available during regular business hours and on any Saturday on or between the 13th and 3rd days before the election.

Contact your county clerk for more information on times and locations.

Vote by Mail (Absentee)

Absentee ballot rules

All registered West Virginia voters may vote by absentee ballot in person during the period of early voting. You may vote by absentee ballot by mail in West Virginia if:

• you will be absent from the county during both the early voting period and Election Day because of  personal or business travel or attendance at a college, university or other place of education or training;
• employment that makes voting in person impossible because of the hours worked and distance from the county seat
• you are confined to a specific location and prevented from voting in person due to an illness, injury, other medical reason, physical disability, or advanced age;
• you are incarcerated or detained in jail or a home on Election Day, but not under conviction of any felony, of treason, or of bribery (including any period of probation or parole);
• you are a participant in the Address Confidentiality Program (ACP) with the Office of the Secretary of State;
• the county absentee voting office and your polling place are inaccessible to to you due to your physical disability.

How to get Absentee ballot

1. Use our Absentee Ballot Form below to prepare your application.
2. Sign and date the form. This is very important!
3. Return your completed application to your Local Election Office as soon as possible. We’ll provide the mailing address for you.
4. All Local Election Offices will accept mailed or hand-delivered forms. If it’s close to the deadline, call and see if your Local Election Office will let you fax or email the application.
5. Make sure your application is received by the deadline. Your application must actually arrive by this time — simply being postmarked by the deadline is insufficient.
6. Please contact your Local Election Office if you have any further questions about the exact process.

What to do next

1. Once you receive the ballot, carefully read and follow the instructions.
2. Sign and date where indicated.
3. Mail your voted ballot back to the address indicated on the return envelope.
4. Your voted ballot must arrive by the deadline or it will not be counted.

Absentee ballot application deadline

• In Person:
• By Mail: 6 days before Election Day.

Absentee ballot submission deadline

• Postmarked by Election Day and received by 6 days after Election Day. (Ballots with no postmark will be counted if received by 1 day after Election Day.)

Absentee Ballot (form)

Elections Alert (Form)

Pollling Information

Polling Place Locator

You can find your polling place by utilizing your state resource.

If you have further questions on your polling place location, please contact your county clerk.

Polling Place Hours

The polling place will be open from 6:30 am to 7:30 pm.

Poll Worker Information

In order to be a poll worker in West Virginia, you must:

• Be 18 years of age by the time of the next election:
• Be a resident of West Virginia
• Be registered to vote in the county you reside in
• Complete required training

You will be entitled to compensation

To sign up, contact your local board of elections.

Elections Division

Secretary of State

Source: Web page

est Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and a graduate of the West Virginia University School of Law School. He earned Master of Law degrees from the University of Virginia Law School and the Army’s Judge Advocate General’s School.

During his 23-year career in the United States Army, Secretary Warner served on four continents, deploying to military hot spots around the world. On one assignment, Warner took part in activities involving the capture and transfer of suspected war criminals to the International Court of Justice at the Hague. In other assignments, he served as an artilleryman, prosecutor, defense counsel, command adviser, and law instructor. He held a variety of leadership and teaching positions, culminating as the Chief of International Law for the US Army Europe in Heidelberg, Germany. He also served on the staff at the U.S. Army War College.

Following military retirement, Secretary Warner served as a contractor with the U.S. State Department in Afghanistan for five years. There, he served as Chief of the Organizational Capacity Building Section of the world’s largest Rule of Law program. He led over 100 Afghan lawyers, translators and administrative personnel, along with a team of international subject matter experts in advising the Afghan Supreme Court, Attorney General’s office, Ministry of Justice, and Ministry of Women’s Affairs.

Secretary Warner took his oath of office in January 2017, and quickly went to work focusing on election integrity and cyber security. Working closely with county clerks, the Office of the Secretary of State posted record-setting numbers: they registered over 46,000 new voters — an incredible number in a non-election year — 13,688 of whom were high school students.

During that first twelve-month period, the Warner administration cleaned up voter rolls by deleting nearly 90,000 deceased, duplicate and improper voter files – which is about 7% of West Virginia’s total registered voter list.

And the Office continues to work with clerks to set new records: to date, more than 140,000 eligible residents have registered to vote, with over 36,000 being high school students. As to election integrity, it is notable that more than 190,000 deceased, duplicate and improper voter files have been eliminated. That is more than 15% of the files that had existed prior to Secretary Warner’s focused clean up initiative.

Secretary Warner’s passion for transparent, fair and fraud-free elections has generated a renewed confidence in West Virginia voters. Because of his military background and keen interest in election cyber security, Secretary Warner has earned West Virginia national attention as a leader in protecting voter databases and elections systems. He has teamed with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to produce the premier program to educate the American public on election security, foreign influence, and protective measures against cyber threats to elections.

As the state’s registrar for businesses, Secretary Warner worked with the WVSOS Business & Licensing Division to open the WV One Stop Business Center. This single location houses four state agencies all working together to make business registration quick and convenient. The WV One Stop is believed to be the first four-agency single-location cooperative effort anywhere in the United States, and it serves as an example of state government being run like a business. In fact, the One Stop’s motto is, “Working at the speed of business!”

Secretary Warner is a sixth generation West Virginian. Born and raised in Kanawha County, he is the third of six sons of the late George ‘Brud’ and Margaret McCoy Warner. Warner is a graduate of George Washington High School in Charleston where he played football, wrestled, and ran track.

He and his wife Debbie Law Warner have been married for 37 years, and they raised four children in Monongalia County – all of whom are serving, or have served, in the United States military. The Warner’s have four grandchildren.