I, admittedly, tend to leave the opining on the actions of the West Virginia Legislature up to our Charleston-based reporter, Steven Allen Adams, but, as we are still relatively in the honeymoon period of our most recent election (for better or worse), I couldn’t help but take notice of a couple of bills making their way through the process dealing with elections in West Virginia.

A thanks to David Beard from our sister publication, the Dominion Post, for reporting on these particular issues.

The first is Senate Bill 50, which would require municipal election dates to be aligned with statewide primary and general elections, with a goal to have everything in line by July 1, 2032 for municipalities with charters that have to be amended by the voters.

Those without charters may do so simply by passing an ordinance.

I can remember a time where Weirton held its primary election in April and its general in May. It was changed to having a general election in June, with the fiscal year beginning July 1.

A few years back, through a charter amendment, Weirton adjusted its calendar to have a general election in line with the national general election. This move also saw the elimination of the city’s primary election.

While the West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office sets municipal general elections for either June 3 or June 10, with primaries set for earlier in the year, that also isn’t always the case.

New Cumberland, for example, has a single election. This year, it’s on May 13. Follansbee and Wellsburg have their own primary and general elections scheduled, but with the caveat that they can cancel their primaries under circumstances where not enough candidates are on the ballot. Those, too, typically happen in the spring.

I can understand the logic in many ways, as this would make a uniform calendar for all municipalities across the state. I’m sure that would cut down on the workload for many of our local and state election officials if they know things will be taking place the same time each year.

The interesting part will be whether they have to make any other changes as a result of the state mandate to adjust their election calendar. I would imagine terms would be extended in most cases, with the next council taking office in January instead of July, just as what happened with Weirton.

Some also may opt to look into adjusting the fiscal calendar, although I imagine that would be even more problematic.

The second issue is the matter of ranked choice voting.

Ranked choice is a round-robin of sorts, where voters cast their ballots by giving preference to each candidate. Candidates with the fewest votes are eliminated each round until one candidate receives a clear majority. This would eliminate a situation where someone wins an election with only 30% of the vote, for example.

As I was writing this column, I received word that Senate Bill 490, which had been approved in its originating chamber March 4, had been given the go-ahead in the House of Delegates as well. That means it will be heading to the desk of Gov. Patrick Morrisey to await his signature.

I was confused on this matter a little. For one, there were two bills on ranked choice – SB 490 and House Bill 2683. Having two bills tells me this was a priority for legislative leadership, although I don’t recall much discussion on it prior to the session.

Another confusion is simply that ranked choice isn’t an option in West Virginia now.

According to the Ranked Choice Voting Resource Center, the use of RCV is still relatively small, with most of the instances of use being adopted only within the last five years or so. While there are a handful of states using it to elect governors, legislators and Congressional representatives, the majority of the cases appear to be for municipal and county elections. A few states offer it as an option for military and overseas voters.

West Virginia doesn’t appear anywhere on the list, though, not even a single city or county.

It just confuses me that lawmakers would dedicate any time to passing legislation to prohibit processes that aren’t being used in the state – let alone establishing separate bills in each chamber of the Legislature.

It will be interesting to see what else comes about this session.

(Howell, a resident of Colliers, is managing editor of The Weirton Daily Times, and can be contacted at chowell@weirtondailytimes.com or followed on Twitter/X @CHowellWDT)