West Virginia Code 3-9-9 – Electioneering defined; unlawful acts at polling places; exceptions; penalties
(a) As used in this section, “electioneering” means the displaying of signs or other campaign paraphernalia, the distribution of campaign literature, cards, or handbills, the soliciting of signatures to any petition, or the solicitation of votes for or against any bona fide candidate or ballot question in a manner which expressly advocates the election or defeat of the candidate or expressly advocates the passage or defeat of the ballot question. “Electioneering” does not include exit polling, so long as persons conducting exit polling are not otherwise engaging in electioneering activities described above, or bumper stickers or signs affixed to a person’s vehicle which is parked within or passing through a distance of one hundred feet of the entrance to a polling place while such person is voting or transporting any voter to the polls.
Terms Used In West Virginia Code 3-9-9
- Candidate: shall mean any person to be voted for at an election. See West Virginia Code 3-1-2
- Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
- Election: shall mean the procedure whereby the voters of this state or any subdivision thereof elect persons to fill public offices, or elect members of a Constitutional convention, or vote on public questions. See West Virginia Code 3-1-2
- Voter: shall mean any person who possesses the statutory and Constitutional qualifications for voting. See West Virginia Code 3-1-2
- whoever: includes corporations, societies, associations and partnerships, and other similar legal business organizations. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
(b) No officer of election may disclose to any person the name of any candidate for whom a voter has voted. No officer of election may do any electioneering on election day.
(c) No person may do any electioneering on election day within any polling place, or within one hundred feet of the outside entrance to the building housing the polling place. No person may do any electioneering in the polling place or within one hundred feet of the outside entrance of any polling place where early voting is conducted during the period in which early voting is offered during the hours while such early voting is actually taking place. Nothing in this subsection shall prohibit a citizen from doing any electioneering upon his or her own private property, regardless of distance from the polling place, so long as that electioneering conforms to other existing laws and ordinances.
(d) No person may apply for or receive any ballot in any polling place, other than that in which the person is entitled to vote, nor may any person examine a ballot which any voter has prepared for voting, or solicit the voter to show the same, nor ask, nor make any arrangement, directly or indirectly, with any voter, to vote an open ballot. No person, except a commissioner of election, may receive from any voter a ballot prepared by him or her for voting. No voter may receive a ballot from any person other than one of the poll clerks; nor may any person other than a poll clerk deliver a ballot to a commissioner of election to be voted by such commissioner. No voter may deliver any ballot to a commissioner of election to be voted, except the one he or she receives from the poll clerk. No voter may place any mark upon his or her ballot, or suffer or permit any other person to do so, by which it may be afterward identified as the ballot voted by him or her.
(e) Whoever violates any provision of this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, on conviction thereof, shall be fined not less than $100 nor more than $1,000, or confined in jail for not more than one year, or both fined and confined.