West Virginia Secretary of State Field Representative Sarah Smith checks the voter registration status of a Wood County Courts Officer during a Moble Office operation held Monday at the Wood County Courthouse. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

PARKERSBURG – West Virginia Secretary of State Kris Warner was in Parkersburg meeting with local people as part of his office’s mobile office operations Monday.

Warner and Field Representative Sarah Smith were at the Wood County Courthouse from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. talking with local residents who had questions about voter registration, changing party affiliations, how to update voter registration if someone has gotten married and has a new last name, or has moved and has a new address, and more.

“Sarah is here to meet with the public,” Warner said. “About anything our office does, we can do online.

“However, there are still some people who do not use the internet. They would rather stop in somewhere and see someone. This is better than someone having to drive to Charleston.”

Warner said they are also highlighting the West Virginia One Stop Business Center for new businesses as well as also highlighting the Boots to Business waiver for veterans and their spouses where they do not pay registration fees, and no annual fees for four years, as well as a Young Entrepreneur Waiver for people under 30 where they pay no registration fee to start a business.

West Virginia Secretary of State Kris Warner spoke to Wood County Clerk Joe Gonzales at the Wood County Courthouse Monday as the Secretary of State’s Office had a Mobile Office operation set up at the Wood County Courthouse for two hours. (Photo provided)

“We focus a lot on elections in our office,” Smith said adding one of their focuses has been on the Jennings Randolph Award for getting high school seniors registered to vote.

Smith, who covers 15 counties in the northern part of West Virginia, said she had 10 schools receive the award which is given to schools who got 85% of their school’s senior class registered to vote. Among the local schools to get the award were Wood County Christian School and St. Marys High School.

Warner visited 37 high schools over the last year and had staff at 57 high schools. Warner did visits to Parkersburg High School, Parkersburg South High School and Wood County Christian School. He is hoping to visit Williamstown High School this fall.

“We have registered over 18,000 high school seniors to vote in West Virginia,” Warner said.

They were able to register one new voter during their first hour at the Wood County Courthouse on Monday, Warner said.

People may need to update their voter registration if they have gotten married or moved. Others need to check to see if they are still active.

“Some people don’t remember how they registered to vote,” Warner said. “With this last primary election we had a lot of people say `I don’t know if I am registered independent or if I switched to the Republican Party.’ Some people wanted to know if they could still vote in the Democratic primary.”

Over the past few months, people have been asking about being unaffiliated voters and would they be able to vote in the primary. They had people asking if they are eligible to vote in the general election. With new businesses, they get a lot of questions about what has to be done to register a new business.

Statewide, they have over 172,000 businesses and non-profits registered in their office.

The Secretary of State’s office is now focused on the general election in November. If someone has moved within the county, they can take care of that online. If they moved to West Virginia from another state they need to fill out a new voter registration with the Secretary of State’s office.

If people have questions about the programs they offer, they can call their office at 304-558-6000 or go online to their website at sos.wv.gov or GoVoteWV at sos.wv.gov/govotewv for voter information.

Contact Brett Dunlap at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com