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PARKERSBURG -- Wood County commissioners discussed the importance of voters to keep their voting registration up-to-date.
Commissioner Jimmy Colombo was watching national news coverage of counts being done in places like Georgia and Florida where candidates were upset that election officials threw out ballots for people who had not voted in over a decade or so with some accusing election officials of trying to prevent people from voting.
''They acted like this was the first time something like this has happened in America,'' Colombo said Monday. ''It is not. We purge our rolls.''
Commission President Blair Couch said such instances are being looked at nationwide to help prevent voters from being disenfranchised from the process.
''Because a guy has chosen not to use their right to vote in the last three elections, does that mean they can no longer vote in the next election?'' he said. ''What we are seeing is the attempt of county government to purge their voter rolls.''
Over time, there have been instances of people attempting to use a dead person's identity to vote and other ways that officials are trying to address.
Wood County Clerk Mark Rhodes said they would have purged such people from the voting rolls due to inactivity. If they did come to the polls after so long, they would have voted a provisional ballot which would have been reviewed by the commission during the canvassing process and either approved or rejected.
''When that person went to the polls, they were no longer there on the rolls,'' he said.
If people are going to be purged, the county would send notices to the individuals telling them they were in a position to be removed and give them the chance to update, renew or do something so they are not removed.
Couch said some counties in the state sent voters a card with a bar code on it that people could scan when they went to vote, but officials were wary of that as they saw ways such a system might be exploited.
The county is working on getting voter history updated and should be completed by next week.
''In February, we will send out No Activity Cards,'' Rhodes said of people who have not voted in the last five years.
Those people can sign it and send the card back to keep their voting status up-to-date.
They will have 90 days to reply. If they don't reply, they become inactive. If people are made inactive and they miss two federal elections then the County Clerk's Office will cancel it.
''That shows the intent on our part to keep everything legal, sane and proper,'' Colombo said.
Rhodes said their office sends out around 4,000 such cards a year.
Other issues faced election night were people going to the wrong precincts where the ballot might have been different than what their proper precinct was using. However, commissioners, during canvassing, accepted provisional ballots from people who went to the wrong precinct but where it had the same ballot as their home precinct uses.
''Every vote is important,'' Couch said. ''If someone goes to the effort to vote, we should try to count their vote (when it was done on the proper ballot style).''
Rhodes said people who have their voter registration canceled can come in to re-register to vote again.
If people have questions about their voting status or feel they need to re-register to vote, they can contact the Wood County Clerk's Office at 304-424-1850.
In other business:
∫ Mike Shook, emergency management director for Wood County, appeared before the commission to discuss changes to the county's Emergency Operation Plan. ''We were required to update our plan every five years,'' Shook said. ''Now, we must address two or three parts of our Emergency Action Plan every year.''
This year Shook wants to address getting an "Animals in Disaster" plan and contact local law enforcement for meetings to review what they need to do during disasters.
The commission approved a letter to be sent to the state saying they approved the changes made.
∫ The commission approved the formation of the Woodcliff Acres Road Maintenance Association. A hearing had been continued to Monday to allow the organizers a chance to get additional required signatures from people in an adjacent neighborhood who would have access to the road. People who owned property in the area who initially objected were informed of additional work completed and no one appeared to object. Commissioner Bob Tebay abstained from voting as his son, attorney Rob Tebay, was representing the group who wanted the association approved.