Kanawha County Clerk Vera McCormick points out trays of precinct change letters from Charleston residents that were returned in March 2015. As West Virginia’s 2016 primary election approaches, McCormick and Cabell County Clerk Karen Cole said they are uncomfortable with the security provisions in the state’s new voter registration website and would not accept applications through the website until changes are made.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The county clerks of two of West Virginia’s largest counties are refusing to accept online voter registrations, instead mailing would-be voters a paper form that must be returned before registration is complete and delaying the registration of thousands of potential voters.
Kanawha County Clerk Vera McCormick and Cabell County Clerk Karen Cole said they are uncomfortable with the security provisions in West Virginia’s 6-month-old online voter registration website and would not accept applications through the website until changes are made.
Clerks for every one of West Virginia’s 53 other counties have been accepting online voter registration since it launched in October, Secretary of State Natalie Tennant said.
In Cabell County, about 1,300 potential voters have been declined by Cole’s office, Tennant said. In Kanawha County, it’s been an average of 30 to 40 voters per day, McCormick said, which would mean about 6,000 declines.
Statewide, about 18,000 people have registered to vote online in the past six months…