Official election mail in the form of a postcard will soon be sent to 15,860 West Virginia voters who may have moved without updating or canceling their voter registration, according Mac Warner, West Virginia Secretary of State. These potential movers did not notify the U.S. Postal Service of any changes of address but appear to have moved based on other available data.
When voters update their address at other agencies or move to a different state, that information does not automatically update or cancel a voter’s old, abandoned registration. Nor do those changes always make it back to the secretary of state or county clerks. To identify those folks who may have slipped through the cracks, additional resources are used to identify voters who may have moved.
This program compares publicly available voter registration records with data from Experian’s “True Trace,” which includes records from all 50 states, to find potentially abandoned registrations. Voters identified through the program will receive a reminder postcard at their current voter registration address with instructions for how to update or cancel their registration record if necessary. If a voter receives a postcard at their current address, then no action is required. If a voter does not respond, no action will be taken on their voter registration status. This postcard is merely a reminder, participation is voluntary, and it will have no effect on voters’ ability to participate in upcoming elections.
Prompting voters to keep their registration current between election cycles is a proactive measure to maintain clean voter rolls. Voters that receive a reminder and have moved to another address or state can update or cancel their abandoned voter registration by filling out the postcard and mailing it back to their county clerk using the return address printed on the card. Existing registrations can also be updated at any time by visiting GoVoteWV.com or the QR code included.
For more information regarding voter registration, voters are encouraged to contact their county clerk.
