Chapter 3, Chapter 3

(a) The financial statements provided for in this article shall be filed, by or on behalf of candidates, with: (1) The Secretary of State for legislative offices, circuit judge, and family court judge, and for statewide and other offices to be nominated or elected by the voters o…

(a)(1) A person, political party, or political action committee may not, in an election cycle: (A) Contribute more than $2,800, directly or indirectly, to a candidate’s committee for a candidate seeking nomination, including by making contributions to the candidate’s committee; o…

(a) Any person who makes or receives a contribution of currency of the United States or currency of any foreign country of more than $50 in value is guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction, shall be fined a sum equal to three times the amount of the contribution. (b) Notwit…

(a) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this code, it is lawful for a person, otherwise qualified to be a candidate for any public office or position to be determined by public election, to receive contributions or make expenditures, or both personally or by another individua…

(a) No candidate, financial agent, person or association of persons or organization advocating or opposing the nomination or election of any candidate or the passage or defeat of any issue or item to be voted upon may receive any money or any other thing of value as a loan toward…

(a) A foreign national may not, directly or indirectly, make: (1) A contribution or donation, or an express or implied promise to make a contribution or donation, to a candidate’s committee, a political committee, or a political party; or (2) An independent expenditure or any dis…

Blank forms for all financial statements required under this article shall be provided by the state election commission. The content of the forms shall be as prescribed by legislative rule promulgated in accordance with the provisions of chapter twenty-nine-a of this code. Pendin…

(a) For each financial statement required by the provisions of this article, the following information may not be made publicly available in any manner, including, but not limited to, disclosure on any governmental websites or in response to public records requests under the West…

(a) Any person, candidate, financial agent, or treasurer of a political committee who fails to file a sworn, itemized statement required by this article within the time limitations specified in this article or who willfully files a grossly incomplete or grossly inaccurate stateme…

(a) An officer, agent, or person acting on behalf of any membership organization or any corporation, whether incorporated under the laws of this or any other state or of a foreign country, may not pay, give, lend, or authorize to be paid, any money or other thing of value belongi…

(a) No financial agent or treasurer of a political committee may pay, give, or lend, either directly or indirectly, any money or other thing of value for any election expenses, except for the following purposes: (1) For rent, maintenance, office equipment, and other furnishing of…

(a) Except as provided in §3-8-9b of this code, a coordinated expenditure is considered to be a contribution and is subject to all requirements for contributions contained in this article. (b) An expenditure made in concert with, in cooperation with, or at the request or suggesti…

(a) Notwithstanding the provisions of §3-8-9a of this code, the state committee of a political party and caucus campaign committee may make coordinated expenditures in any amount with the general election campaign of the candidate for each of the following offices: Governor, Atto…

(a) Political committees may engage in joint fund-raising efforts with other political committees or with committees registered with the Federal Election Commission pursuant to a written joint fund-raising agreement. (b) A written joint fund-raising agreement must be filed with t…

Every person named and identified in this section, who shall violate any of the provisions of the election laws as herein specified, shall be deemed guilty of a felony and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by imprisonment in a state correctional facility for not less th…

Any person who shall, by force, menace, fraud or intimidation, prevent or attempt to prevent any officer whose duty it is by law to assist in holding an election, or in counting the votes cast thereat, and certifying and returning the result thereof, from discharging his duties a…

Any election officer who shall wilfully fail, neglect or refuse to prepare and return certificates of the result of the election in the manner provided, within twelve hours after the completion of the count, tabulation and declaration of the results, shall be guilty of a misdemea…

Whoever, being a candidate for any office, loans or gives, directly or indirectly, or offers or promises to loan, or give, any money, or other thing of value, to any elector, for the purpose of influencing or retaining the vote of such elector, or inducing such elector to work or…

(a) It is unlawful for any person to offer or to pay money or any other thing of value to any person as consideration for the vote of the offeree or payee, as the case may be, to be cast for or against any candidate or issue in any election held in the state. Any person who viola…

Any employer or agent of any employer or corporation, who prints or authorizes to be printed upon any pay envelope or who distributes directly or indirectly, or gives directly to any employee any statement intended or calculated to influence the political action of his employees …

Any voter who shall, before or during any election, directly or indirectly, by himself, or by any other person on his behalf, solicit, demand, receive, agree or contract for any money, gift, loan, or valuable consideration, office, place of employment, or solicit any endorsement …

(a) Any person who knowingly and willfully votes or attempts to vote more than once at the same election held in this state; in more than one county in this state at the same or equivalent election; or, in this state and another state or territory at the same or equivalent electi…

Any person voting, in any primary election, any ticket of a party other than that of which he is registered as a member, and any election officer receiving the vote of any such person, knowing, or having reason to believe, that such voter is not a member of the party the ticket o…

(a) Any person who, with the intent to commit fraud, obtains, removes, or disseminates an absent voter’s ballot, intimidates an absent voter, or completes or alters an absent voter’s ballot, is guilty of a felony and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not less than $10,000 …

No one, except the person employed and authorized by the ballot commissioners to do so, shall print any ballot for any election. No person engaged or employed in printing such ballots shall deliver any ballot to any person except a member of the board of ballot commissioners, or …

Any corporation violating any provision of section forty-two of article one of this chapter or preventing or attempting to prevent any voter in its employ from attending any election, or from freely exercising his right of suffrage, at any election, at which he is entitled to vot…

Any person, during hours a polling place is open for any election, who intentionally physically interferes with a voter’s travel on the walkways, driveways, and parking areas adjacent to a building in which a polling place is located with the intention to delay, hinder, interrupt…

It shall be unlawful to bet or wager money or other thing of value on any election held in this state. Any person violating the provisions of this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, he shall forfeit the value of the money or thing so bet or wa…

Any person who shall commit any act made an offense by any provision of this chapter, for which no penalty or punishment is prescribed by any other provision contained therein, or any person who shall fail to perform any duty prescribed therein which has not been specifically mad…

No person shall be prosecuted for any crime or offense under any provision of this chapter, unless upon an indictment found and presentment made within five years after the date of the commission of the crime or offense.

(a) If any election official, or other person, making any affidavit required under any provision of this chapter, shall therein knowingly swear falsely, or if any person shall counsel, advise, aid or abet another in the commission of false swearing, he shall be guilty of a misdem…

Any commissioner of election designated to call for and deliver election supplies as provided in article one of this chapter who shall wilfully or negligently fail to appear at the offices of the clerks of the circuit and county courts of his county and procure and deliver such s…

If any person shall, during the election, remove or destroy any of the supplies or other conveniences placed in the booths or compartments as aforesaid, or delivered to the voter for the purpose of enabling the voter to prepare his ballot or shall, during an election, remove, tea…

If any person, not herein authorized so to do, enters or attempts to enter the election room, except upon a lawful errand and for a proper purpose, or remains within 100 feet of the outside entrance to the building housing the polling place, contrary to the provisions of this cha…

Any election officer who refuses the vote of a duly registered and qualified voter, whom he knows is entitled to vote or who accepts the vote of a person whom he knows to be not lawfully registered, without challenging such persons, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon con…

If any person shall induce, or attempt to induce, any voter to write, paste or otherwise place on his ballot the name of any person, or any sign or device of any kind, as a distinguishing mark by which to indicate to any other person how such voter voted, or shall enter into or a…

(a) As used in this section, “electioneering” means the displaying of signs or other campaign paraphernalia, the distribution of campaign literature, cards, or handbills, the soliciting of signatures to any petition, or the solicitation of votes for or against any bona fide candi…

(a) When a vacancy occurs in an elected office of the state or county, it shall be filled according to the processes set forth in this article. As used in this article, unless otherwise indicated by the context: (1) "General cutoff date" means the eighty-fourth day before the gen…

(a) In case of the death, conviction on impeachment, failure to qualify, resignation or other disability of the Governor, the President of the Senate shall act as Governor until the vacancy is filled or the disability removed; and if the President of the Senate, for any of the ab…

(a) Any vacancy occurring in the offices of Secretary of State, Auditor, Treasurer, Attorney General, Commissioner of Agriculture, or in any office created or made elective to be filled by the voters of the entire state, is filled by the Governor of the state by appointment and s…

(a) The Judicial Vacancy Advisory Commission shall assist the Governor in filling judicial vacancies. The commission shall meet and submit a list of no more than five nor less than two of the most qualified persons to the Governor within 90 days of the occurrence of a vacancy, or…

(a) (1) If there is a vacancy in the representation from this state in the House of Representatives in the Congress of the United States, the Governor shall, within five days after the fact comes to his or her knowledge, issue a proclamation setting dates for a special general el…

(a) Any vacancy in the office of state senator or member of the House of Delegates shall be filled by appointment by the Governor, from a list of three legally qualified persons submitted by the party senatorial district executive committee or party delegate district executive co…

(a) When a vacancy occurs in the office of clerk of the circuit court, the circuit court by a majority vote of the judges shall fill the same within thirty days of the vacancy, for the period required by §3-10-1 of this code, by appointment of a person of the same political party…

(a) Any vacancy in the office of county commissioner or councilor, or clerk of county commission or council, shall be filled by appointment by the county commission or council. The appointee for the office of county commissioner or councilor must reside in a magisterial district …

(a) Any vacancy occurring in the office of prosecuting attorney, sheriff, assessor, or county surveyor shall be filled by the county commission within 30 days of the vacancy by appointment of a person of the same political party with which the person holding the office immediatel…

If an election as required by section two or four of this article cannot be held in conjunction with the regular election dates, then the cost of printing ballots and all other reasonable and necessary expenses in holding and making the return of the new election to fill a vacanc…

Any amendment to the Constitution of the State may be proposed in either house of the Legislature by a joint resolution. When an amendment as proposed is agreed to as provided by section two, article fourteen of the Constitution, the question of ratification or rejection of such …

In any joint resolution proposing an amendment to the West Virginia Constitution, for ratification or rejection by the voters, the Legislature shall for convenience of reference thereto, assign a title to such proposed amendment and shall set forth a summary of the purpose of suc…

The Secretary of State shall cause each proposed amendment, with its title and summary of purpose, to be published as a Class I legal advertisement at least three months before such election in some newspaper in every county in the state in which a newspaper is printed. The cost …