Bill Text: WV HB2698 | 2011 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Requiring a nonbinding referendum in the counties of Morgan, Berkeley and Jefferson to determine their desire to secede from West Virginia and become a part of Virginia
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2011-01-21 - To House Judiciary [HB2698 Detail]
Download: West_Virginia-2011-HB2698-Introduced.html
(By Delegate Kump)
[Introduced January 21, 2011 ; referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary then Finance.]
A BILL to amend and reenact §1-3-3 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to the state and its subdivisions; creation of new county; change in line; requiring a nonbinding referendum in the counties of Morgan, Berkeley and Jefferson to determine their desire to secede from West Virginia and become a part of Virginia; and providing procedures for the election.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §1-3-3 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 3. CREATION OF NEW COUNTY; CHANGE IN COUNTY LINE.
§1-3-3. Submission of question of creation of new county to voters; copies of surveys, census and declaration of result of election;nonbinding referendum for counties of Morgan, Berkeley and Jefferson to secede from West Virginia.
(a) If it appear, by such surveys and census, that there are within the limits of the proposed new county at least four hundred square miles of territory and at least six thousand population, and that no county is thereby reduced below four hundred square miles of territory or below six thousand population, and that no part of any county having a population of not more than six thousand, or a territory of not more than four hundred square miles, is included within
(b) Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, the converse of the provisions of subsection (a) of this section shall apply to the counties of Morgan, Berkeley and Jefferson, with regard to the question of seceding from West Virginia. The county commission or county council of each of the three counties shall order a nonbinding referendum vote of the qualified voters of those counties to be taken on a day named for the purpose, which shall be on the same day in each county at such place or places therein as the commission or county council of each of the three counties may direct. The time and place a notice shall be published prior to the election as a Class II-O legal advertisement in compliance with the provisions of article three, chapter fifty-nine of this code and the publication area for the publication is each of the three counties. The commission or county council of each of these three counties shall, at the same time, appoint commissioners of election for each of the three counties of voting, and all the laws relating to a general election shall, as far as applicable, govern and control the holding of the election at the several places of voting, the ascertaining of the result thereof at each of the three counties and the returns thereof, and the declaring of the general result of the election at all the places of voting in each of the three counties. The ballots used at the nonbinding referendum election shall have printed on them the words "For secession from West Virginia to become a part of Virginia," and "Against new secession from West Virginia to become a part of provision." The clerk of the county commission or county council of each of the counties shall deliver to any person who may demand copies of the result of the election in his or her county, duly certified by him or her to be true copies, and pay or tender his or her legal fees this information. The fees for the copies shall be the same as are allowed by law for other copying done by the clerk.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to requiring a nonbinding referendum in the counties of Morgan, Berkeley and Jefferson to determine their desire to secede from West Virginia and become a part of Virginia.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.