CREATING CONFLICT? — House Minority Whip Shawn Fluharty, D-Ohio, was among those raising concerns about House Bill 4600, which passed the House Tuesday on a 77-17 vote. HB 4600 would establish new deadlines for county clerks to receive absentee ballots. -- Photo Courtesy/WV Legislative Photography

CHARLESTON — A bill to move up the deadline for West Virginia’s county clerks to receive absentee ballots in time to be counted in primary and general elections was approved by the House of Delegates after lengthy debate.

House Bill 4600, requiring all ballots for primary and general elections to be received no later than the close of the polls on election day, passed in the House Tuesday afternoon in a 77-17 vote with three members absent or not voting. The bill now heads to the state Senate.

HB 4600 would require that any absentee ballot returned to a local county clerk via the U.S. mail or express shipping must be received by the county clerk’s office by 8 p.m. on the day of the primary or general election. It would apply to standard absentee ballots, military and overseas voters, and ballots submitted electronically.

Current State Code allows absentee ballots to either be hand-delivered to a local county clerk’s office by the day before the primary or general election date or absentee ballots can be mailed and postmarked by Election Day and received by the county clerk by the start of the canvassing of votes in order to be counted.

“The issue that we’re trying to correct, like 21 other states, is to have a definitive deadline, like we do now, but make it Election Day,” said Del. Rick Hillenbrand, R-Hampshire, the bill’s lead sponsor.

Hillenbrand said his motivation for changing the absentee ballot deadline stems from concerns over the ability of the U.S. Postal Service to postmark absentee ballots in time to be counted. He also raised concerns about tampering with postmarks by private actors.

The Secretary of State’s Office recently pointed out through a Jan. 14 press release about a U.S. Postal Service warned that even if documents, such as absentee ballots, are mailed on time, those pieces of mail might not receive their postmark until the following day.

“That was driven in part by the December announcement by the U.S. Postal Office that the date that you provide them mail doesn’t necessarily reflect the date that has been affixed to it as a postmark,” Hillenbrand said. “Recent research has also discovered … that metered mail is counted as a postmark, and it is possible to fiddle with metered mail.”

Debate over HB 4600 lasted almost an hour Tuesday. The bill had bipartisan opposition with eight Republicans voting against the bill, including Del. Keith Marple, who said the bill could possibly disenfranchise older voters and rural voters who choose to mail in absentee ballots.

“I believe that it is an affront to the voters of West Virginia,” Marple said. “A lot of elderly people aren’t able to get to the polls. A lot of them don’t make up their minds until they hear both sides, hear from the candidates that are running.”

“I think that we’re doing an injustice to the citizens and the voters of West Virginia,” Marple said. “I urge that you vote this bill down, you preserve the dignity of the elections in West Virginia, and you allow people who mail their ballots on the day before election and have it postmarked.”

The entire nine-member House Democratic caucus opposed HB 4600, raising a number of concerns, including the bill causing issues with the federal Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, which requires states to send absentee ballots to those military and overseas voters at least 45 days before federal elections.

“Federal law does not require receipt by election day. It requires the ability to vote by election day, specifically for our military. We are contradicting that,” said House Minority Whip Shawn Fluharty, D-Ohio. “It’s just an arbitrary, nonsensical, conspiracy theory government that we run here. We govern by conspiracy theories on the fringe. We’re not talking about fraudsters. We’re not talking about schemers. We’re talking about our neighbors.”

“I’ve been following elections for quite some time. I don’t know of any case in West Virginia where there was an announcement of a winner on election night and then all of a sudden the absentee ballots came in after the fact and changed the outcome,” said Del. Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, the chairman of the West Virginia Democratic Party.

“It only makes sense that it’s based on the postmark and not on the arrival date,” Pushkin continued. “If somebody follows the rules, they get it in in a reasonable time, and then something goes wrong at the post office, they should not be punished by having their vote thrown out and have their right to vote taken away because of something that was beyond their control.”

Several House members – including some with prior military service – said making changes to West Virginia’s absentee ballot deadline date would not be a hindrance to military and overseas voters.

“I was in the Marine Corps for 20 years. I voted every opportunity that I had. It was made clear to me that I needed to vote. I made it clear to my troops,” said Del. Bill Ridenour, R-Jefferson. “One of the things that they need to do to preserve our republic is to vote, to ensure that they’re participating in our republic and in the elections that define our republic.”

“There are 21 other states that do this,” said Del. Tristan Leavitt, R-Kanawha. “I understand there are policy disagreements that people may not like this as a deadline. And I understand that whatever we do, we want to educate our people about it. But I do think it’s a little disingenuous to claim that we are disregarding votes or that we are trying to disenfranchise anybody. This is something that is done in almost half of the states in the nation, including by very liberal states, and it has never posed an issue.”