December 13, 2007

Issued by the Secretary Of State

Secretary of State to Assist County Clerks in Obtaining Voter Address Changes

All 55 county clerks, with assistance from the Secretary of State’s Office, will be mailing notices to certain voters later this month to confirm new address information, provided by the U.S. Postal Service, in order to comply with federal and state voter registration requirements. This mailing by the county clerks is different from a previous mailing sent by the Secretary of State’s Office to comply with the Help America Vote Act. With the previous mailing, approximately 193,000 voters were asked to provide a unique identifier (their drivers license number or the last four digits of their social security number) because registration records lacked this pertinent information.

The county clerks will send this new mailing to approximately 76,000 registered voters who have moved in the past two years, but who may not have notified their county clerk’s voter registration office of their address change. This mailing seeks only the voter’s name, new address, daytime phone number and e-mail address.

“We hope every voter who receives one of these notices from their county clerk will take a few moments and respond,” Secretary of State Betty Ireland said. “We want to ensure our registration rolls are as accurate and complete as possible.”

Notices like the current one have been mailed every two years since 1995, and are required to comply with the National Change of Address provisions of the National Voter Registration Act. Voters are encouraged to review the instructions, complete the card, then seal and return it to their county clerk’s office. Although no particularly sensitive information is sought by the new mailing, voters are nevertheless being asked to seal the cards with tape, to ensure complete privacy, before returning the cards to their county clerks.

“When our citizens, state and local officials work together, we all benefit,” Secretary Ireland said. “And this is yet another way we can provide West Virginians with clean and fair elections statewide.”