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WHEELING -- West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner on Tuesday underscored the importance of sticking to the law when it comes to addressing election issues that can -- on either side of the political spectrum -- lead to a breakdown in voter confidence.
Speaking before members of the Wheeling Rotary Club on Tuesday, Warner noted that there were not many irregularities arising from the recent West Virginia primary election.
"As you probably know, there was a very low voter turnout, but that's typical in off-year elections," Warner said, noting that the primary earlier this month drew a fraction of the voters that a general election might garner, especially when presidential or senatorial candidates are on the ballot.
"We didn't see anything really unusual about this election that we haven't seen in other off-year elections."
Ohio County had about a 28% voter turnout during this election, slightly higher than the state average of around 22-23%. That's very low, Warner said, but stressed that motivating voters is not the responsibility of the Secretary of State's office, the local boards of election or any elected officials in the executive branch of government whose job it is to apply the law and officiate the operation.
"Just like in football, you don't want the officials determining the outcome of the game," he said. "The responsibility to get voters out is up to the candidate, the campaign and the parties -- it's their responsibility."
When you start mixing those roles and responsibilities and start changing the rules in the middle of the game, that's where problems arise, Warner said.
"Every eligible vote should count, and every ineligible vote should not be counted," he said, embracing the mantra that it should be "easy to vote, but hard to cheat."
In recent presidential elections, voter confidence reached seemingly all-time lows for those whose candidates wound up on the losing end of the counts in both 2016 and 2020. Trying to reform voting rules while elections are taking place or to try to tip the scale in favor of one side or the other is not the answer, Warner indicated, noting that these tactics only serve to further disenfranchise voters and erode voter confidence.
"I've been called to testify in front of Congress twice about what West Virginia is doing, why we didn't have problems and why West Virginia is in the top five states across the nation in voter confidence among both Republicans and Democrats," Warner said. "It's because we stuck to the law, and if we had to change something, I went to the chair of the Republican party, the chair of the Democrat party, the attorney general and the governor to do so beforehand."
All elections have "irregularities" to some extent, but what is concerning to Warner are situations that elevate election activities to "improprieties," or practices that go against the rule of law. Controversy over the 2020 election results stemmed from unusual situations in a number of states, Warner said.
"I can't say it's fraud," he stressed. "I don't call it fraud, I call it having irregularities and improprieties. It's not fraud on a massive scale -- I don't see conspiracies or believe there was enough of it to see the numbers changing."
What was obvious in the 2020 general election, Warner said, was "enough votes counted outside the law" in states like Arizona, Wisconsin, Georgia and Pennsylvania to warrant questions, raise concerns and damage voter confidence.
Warner said when thousands of absentee ballots are allowed to be corrected after they already have been sent, when ballots are accepted three days after the election is over, when tens of thousands of ballots are counted without proper signature verification, when there is evidence that knapsacks of ballots that have been "harvested" or "trafficked" have been dropped off at drop boxes -- then votes are likely being counted through processes that are clearly contrary to state rules.
"In West Virginia, we typically have about 7,000 absentee ballots in a given election," Warner explained. "In the 2020 election, we had 224,000 absentee ballots in West Virginia.
"Highest percentage of voter fraud occurs with absentee ballots."
Warner said he is not opposed to voting mail-in or absentee ballots, but in West Virginia, there are rules that apply.
"There's nothing wrong with mail-in ballots if you have a reason," Warner said, noting that those in military service, senior citizens, those with an illness, workers who are out of town on a job during election day and many other voters in West Virginia can request an absentee ballot. "I'm not against it, but not for a blanket rule that applies to everyone."
During the COVID-19 pandemic, everyone fell into that category -- there was a medical excuse. But with stay-at-home orders lifted and public health concerns diminishing, there is no reason to keep voting changes that applied during the pandemic in place moving forward, Warner indicated.
"To maintain voter confidence, that is where Congress needs to move for all of our benefit," Warner said.
The voter reform bill HR1 -- known as the For the People Act -- was not the "confidence builder" that the nation needed, according to Warner, who tipped his hat to Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) for putting the kibosh on the bill.
Earlier this month, Warner sent a letter to President Joe Biden voicing his opposition to Executive Order 14019, directing federal agencies to present "strategic plans" to expand voter registration services on federal premises. Warner said it is not the responsibility of the federal government or the White House to implement or duplicate state-level voter registration services.
"It's not proper to use government resources to do a party's bidding," Warner said, noting that it is up to the states to legislate and oversee their election processes. "We've taken 365,000 names off of voter registration lists in West Virginia, that's how bad our voter registration lists had gotten prior to my taking office. That's 365,000 opportunities for fraud."
And moving forward, Warner said he expects West Virginia to continue to lead the nation in voter confidence, primarily by making sure the law is followed.
"It's up to the state legislators to lay out the law when it comes to elections, and in West Virginia, it's up to me to execute it," he said.