Warner announces that county clerks have removed 253,263 abandoned voter files in the last four years

Charleston, W.Va. — Secretary of State Mac Warner made voter list maintenance a cornerstone of his first term of office as West Virginia's chief elections officer. When he took office as West Virginia's 30th Secretary of State in January of 2017, he immediately went to work with West Virginia’s 55 county clerks to identify ways to keep voter registration lists accurate and complete.

Over the last four years, Warner has worked closely with all 55 county clerks to uniformly identify and remove abandoned registrations from deceased voters, felons, duplicate records, and people who had moved out of state. They also began a campaign to register new voters. To date, the clerks have removed 253,263 voter files statewide.

“West Virginia’s voting rolls have never been cleaner and more accurate than they are today,” Warner said. “The dedication to accuracy from our county clerks while applying multi-agency list comparisons to track abandoned registrations has resulted in the most accurate voting rolls in our state’s history.”

At the same time, Warner said that his office and the county clerks implemented a public education effort that emphasized voter registration, especially for young people and newcomers to the state. Warner said county clerks have registered 242,044 new voters over the last four years, including more than 65,000 eligible high school students.

As of Feb. 11, 2021, West Virginia has 1,219,542 registered voters. A county-by-county breakdown of voter registration can be found here.

"Eligible West Virginia citizens can now register to vote or update their current registration online anytime," Warner said. "Our website allows voters 24-hour-a-day access to voter registration in all 55 counties."

To register to vote or to find more information on elections in West Virginia, visit GoVoteWV.com.