By Stephen Smoot
Last session, the West Virginia State Legislature passed Senate Bill 50. This act had required all of West Virginia’s incorporated municipal governments to pass ordinances to synchronize elections with county governments by July 1, 2032.
The House of Delegates wished to roll the deadline back to 2028, but the West Virginia Secretary of State’s office, as well as other legislators, wished to accommodate the different ways in which various municipal governments would have to change their laws
One of the key issues pushing the move lay in low turnout for city and town polling. Delegate Larry Kump (R-Berkley) told a statewide online media outlet at the time that “by mandating that all West Virginia elections are held on normal election dates, Senate Bill 50 will eliminate the taxpayer burden of holding these special elections.”
He added that “importantly, will also increase voter awareness and election turnout.”
The Town of Franklin has seen fairly low voter participation in recent elections.
Not willing to let the grass grow under the Town of Franklin’s feet on the issue, town administrator Frank Wehrle initiated the process to fulfill that mandate.
Wehrle informed the council of his work with Elise White, Pendleton County clerk, in synchronizing county and town elections.
Some jurisdictions have moved forward. Harrison County, for example, had already established agreements with Clarksburg and Shinnston and have already run combined elections with little difficulty.
Shinnston held its first synchronized county and city election during the 2024 primary. At that point, state law encouraged but did not mandate the linkage. Kathleen Panek, Shinnston city clerk, shared that “for the city, it was good. I did not have to beat the bushes for poll workers. I did not have to have early voting polls and two Saturdays to pay people when few, if any, voters came on Saturdays for those two weeks.”
Harrison County paid the City of Shinnston “for our portion of the ballots and half of the salaries for our four polling places, the normal poll locations in each ward.”
One of the issues that Shinnston, and many other cities, must tackle is changing the city charter. Many West Virginia cities established the date of election and/or the initial days of office of elected officeholders in the charter. Unlike many cities, their charter did not require a municipal election to pass the changes.
Both process and people make the changes work more smoothly. “Harrison County has a wonderful clerk who worked with me,” shared Panek. The only issue lay in that “we discovered three people listed as out of limits and he (the county clerk) did what was needed for them to be in their city limits ward.”
The relative population size, Shinnston has almost 2,500 residents and Franklin 540, means that the latter town does not deal in wards for election purposes.
Wehrle expressed the need for Franklin and Pendleton County to act quickly to get everything in place before next year. If done first on a presidential election year, it would create considerably more potential for problems. Once Wehrle and White eliminate logistical issues, such as creating for Franklin a “precinct within a precinct” to ensure proper balloting, the county and town would have to agree to a Memorandum of Understanding.
Additionally, the town would need to pass an ordinance to enable the new election plan and eliminate the former. This would align the town filing period, early voting, and election day with Pendleton County.
When asked about cost to the town, Wehrle stated that they would simply cede the budgeted amount to the county. He explained that Franklin pays $1,350 to run its elections while the county has to spend approximately $30,000.
As of now, the Pendleton County Commission has the issue on its agenda for its next regular meeting.
