Voter registration cleanup moves through Senate committee - Business, Government Legal News from throughout WV

A bill that aims at keeping voter registration lists a little more tidy was moved out of the Senate Judiciary Committee Friday.

The measure would clear up county and state roles in the list maintenance process.

It would also allow a few checkups to the process. The West Virginia Secretary of State's Office would perform a quarterly review of county lists and also be required to give written notification to any county clerk who did not perform file maintenance.

A comparison of voter registration numbers and 2010 census numbers by The State Journal last year showed several counties had unusually large numbers of registered voters. Lincoln County had the highest registration rate, with 116 registered voters per 100 residents of voting age. Although the county has cleaned its rolls some, at the time of the special election for governor last year, it still had more registrations than eligible voters.