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PARKERSBURG -- The Wood County Clerk's office has removed over 5,000 abandoned voter files in the last four years as part of a statewide effort.
West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner announced this week that county clerks statewide have been able to remove 253,263 abandoned voter files in the last four years, according to a release from his office.
Over that period, Warner has worked closely with all 55 county clerks to uniformly identify and remove abandoned registrations from deceased voters, felons, duplicate records, and people who had moved out of state, the release said.
"West Virginia's voting rolls have never been cleaner and more accurate than they are today," Warner said. "The dedication to accuracy from our county clerks while applying multi-agency list comparisons to track abandoned registrations has resulted in the most accurate voting rolls in our state's history."
Wood County Clerk Mark Rhodes said they have been able to remove 5,200 from the local voting rolls. These voters have not shown any activity for the past seven years.
"They have not voted, have not had an address change and they have had no activity of any type over a seven year timeframe," Rhodes said.
The clerk's office sends out voter registration cards asking people if they want to remain registered even if they have had no activity.
"If they check 'yes' we leave them on there," Rhodes said. "If they check 'no' we can taken them off."
Even after taking them off the rolls, the county is required to keep their registration cards on file for another five years.
Rhodes said his office normally goes through this process every other year. They began the recent process a couple of weeks ago and they have already had seven people who have re-registered.
"They are now back on the rolls," Rhodes said.
Other people who were inactive voted in the last election and became active again, he said.
His office reviews death certificates to take out people who have passed away.
Warner said his office and the county clerks implemented a public education effort that emphasized voter registration, especially for young people and newcomers to the state. Warner said county clerks have registered 242,044 new voters over the last four years, including more than 65,000 eligible high school students.
As of Feb. 11, West Virginia has 1,219,542 registered voters. Wood County has 51,823.
"Eligible West Virginia citizens can now register to vote or update their current registration online anytime," Warner said. "Our website allows voters 24-hour-a-day access to voter registration in all 55 counties."
To register to vote or to find more information on elections in West Virginia, visit GoVoteWV.com or contact the Wood County Clerk's Office at 304-424-1850.
Contact Brett Dunlap at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com