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Election may present a unique situation

Qualified voters in the 3rd Senatorial District will have the unique opportunity to nominate and elect two state senators in 2016. This situation exists because the incumbent senator from Wood resigned leaving Wood without a senator. A Roane County resident was appointed as his replacement. Our state constitution provides that not more than one senator can come from the same county in a multi-county district. The 3rd District is comprised of Wood, Pleasants, Wirt and part of Roane counties.

Because Wood County has more population (80,000 plus) than all of the other counties put together, one of the senators has always been from Wood. Since Wood does not now have a senator one could be nominated and elected from Wood and the other senator would have to be from one of the other counties. Historically this other senator has, for 30 years, been elected from Pleasants County with a population of only 7,000 residents.

The 2016 election will nominate and elect one person for a four-year term and one person for a two-year term. Because of our constitutional prohibition of not more than one senator from the same county and because of Wood’s overwhelming population Wood is likely to nominate and elect one of the senators and the other senator would have to come from one of the other counties in the district. If two senators are nominated and elected from Wood, the court may have to decide which one will be seated.

In filing for one of the senate seats, the person filing would have to file for either the four-year term or the two-year term. The incumbent senator from Pleasants County’s four-year term will expire in 2016. That person will have to run to be re-elected and, for the first time, could have opposition from the much larger county of Wood. There have already been two people file pre-candidacy for the four-year term, including the incumbent senator from Pleasants County, and a person from Wood County. It is my view that the person who wins the four-year term, and who will serve for four years, will cause the person who is elected for the two-year term, whose seat will be up in 2018, to have to run in a county which does not include the county from which the four-year term winner was elected.

Prior to a U. S. Supreme Court ruling that each person was entitled to equal representation, every county in West Virginia was entitled to a delegate in our house of delegates. After that ruling, some counties were combined to comply with the ruling. Prior to the court’s ruling, Wirt County, with only 5,000 people, had a delegate. Wirt is now combined with a part of Wood in order to have enough population to come within the court ruling.

Many of our senatorial districts are made up of small under populated counties which do not comply with the one-man one-vote court ruling. This situation was challenged in our state supreme court and the challenge was rejected. However, this subject has not been challenged in the U. S. Supreme Court.

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