West Virginia

Florida, West Virginia and Missouri withdraw from bipartisan effort aimed at maintaining accurate voter rolls | CNN Politics

Published

1 year ago

March 6, 2023

Florida, West Virginia and Missouri withdraw from bipartisan effort aimed at maintaining accurate voter rolls | CNN Politics

CNN
—

Florida, West Virginia and Missouri withdrew on Monday from the Digital Registration Info Heart, the bipartisan multi-state partnership aimed toward serving to states preserve correct voter rolls.

ERIC is a nonprofit system that helps taking part states maintain their registration rolls correct and updated by analyzing voter knowledge and sharing reviews with members, to ensure that them to replace their voter rolls, take away ineligible voters and examine potential voter fraud.

“ERIC will comply with our Bylaws and Membership Settlement concerning any member’s request to resign membership,” Shane Hamlin, the group’s govt director, stated in an announcement in response to Monday’s withdrawals. We are going to proceed our work on behalf of our remaining member states in enhancing the accuracy of America’s voter rolls and rising entry to voter registration for all eligible residents.”

The three states be a part of Alabama and Louisiana, who’ve beforehand retreated from the partnership.

The GOP-led states’ withdrawals are coming amid conspiracy theories that blame the system for voter fraud, regardless of there being no proof of widespread voter fraud within the 2020 and 2022 elections.

Hamlin launched an open letter final week addressing “current misinformation spreading” concerning the group.

“ERIC is rarely related to any state’s voter registration system. Members retain full management over their voter rolls they usually use the reviews we offer in ways in which adjust to federal and state legal guidelines,” Hamlin acknowledged.

In accordance with Florida’s secretary of state, Monday’s determination was because of “issues about knowledge privateness and blatant partisanship.”

“As Secretary of State, I’ve an obligation to guard the non-public data of Florida’s residents, which the ERIC settlement requires us to share,” Republican Wire Byrd stated in a information launch. “Florida has tried to again reforms to extend protections, however these protections had been refused. Due to this fact, we’ve misplaced confidence in ERIC.”

However when Florida first joined ERIC in 2019, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis touted the partnership because the “proper factor to do” and claimed it might guarantee “voter rolls are up-to-date and it’ll enhance voter participation” in Florida elections.

Extra just lately, the Republican governor expressed a optimistic observe concerning the talents of ERIC final August for his personal political agenda, when he introduced the arrest of 20 ex-felons for voting illegally within the 2020 election.

“In case you truly vote in each locations in a main or in a basic election, we’ve the power to match these information by the ERIC system for many states now,” DeSantis stated on the time.

Brad Ashwell, Florida state director of All Voting is Native, stated DeSantis is “caving into strain by election deniers” and the governor has had “a persistent sample of reacting to conspiracy theorists and making costly choices that influence our election system in destructive methods.”

“Issues are simply both not a problem, which are an ordinary a part of the election course of or issues that basically aren’t an issue getting politicized and blown out of proportion into this huge menace, and it’s not productive. It doesn’t assist voters and can result in further prices,” Ashwell stated.

In a letter addressed to Hamlin on Monday, Missouri Secretary of State John Ashcroft listed causes for his determination claiming ERIC “refuses to require member states to take part in addressing multi-state voter fraud” and “unnecessarily restricts how Missouri makes use of knowledge reviews.”

The withdrawals comply with an ERIC Board of Administrators assembly final month in Washington, DC. West Virginia’s secretary of state’s workplace stated in a information launch that the assembly was to “to think about modifications to the bylaws and membership settlement really helpful by a bi-partisan working group of a number of member states.”

“After a last-second change to the agenda and disjointed discussions interrupted quite a few occasions by non-voting, non-dues-paying people, the ERIC Board rejected important working group really helpful modifications that might have prevented third-party influences from serving as non-state ex officio members to the ERIC Board of Administrators,” the discharge acknowledged.

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West Virginia

Fit + Active Schools Face-off returns to State Culture Center – WV MetroNews

Published

2 hours ago

May 17, 2024

Press Room

Fit + Active Schools Face-off returns to State Culture Center – WV MetroNews

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Six elementary schools and three middle schools around the state are facing off to see who’s the fittest.

The West Virginia Department of Education held its Fit + Active Schools Face-off Friday at the State Culture Center for its third year.

WVDE Physical Education Coordinator Josh Grant said the groups of elementary and middle schools compete in an eight exercise and four round workout routine for the event.

“It puts them against other schools to see what schools are the fittest and they’re judged on their form, their rhythm, their intensity, their stamina and their transitions,” Grant said.

Trinity Hill and Kendall Long were two students competing with their team from Peterstown Middle School in Monroe County.

“It’s a pretty cool experience to be here,” said Hill.

“Yeah, we worked hard to get here,” Long added.

They explained what all they were doing as part of the face-off.

“We do pushups, butt kicks, planks, jumping jacks, plank rolls, butterfly crunches,” they said.

Grant said the competing schools were selected to participate in the event by submitting a virtual entry of them doing the exercises and they trained throughout the semester to get there.

Along with Peterstown Middle, the other schools taking part in the face-off included: Frametown Elementary School in Braxton County, Overbrook Elementary and Richmond Elementary in Kanawha County, Roosevelt Elementary in Mason, Teays Valley and West Teays elementary schools in Putnam, Roosevelt Middle School in Mason County, and Teays Valley Christian Middle School in Putnam County.

In addition, students got to watch a performance by the Village of Barboursville Magic Jump Rope Team.

Grant said the focus of the event is on promoting children’s wellness, health, and team-building initiatives.

“A neat thing about this event is that it shows students that once they compete here they can be active for life,” Grant said. “I think we need to showcase wellness in our state and just encourage students to be healthy and active, and this is just a great way to show what it takes to work as a team, and they have what it takes inside of them to be fit and healthy for life.”

Judges from SHAPEWV, CrossFit Coal, the West Virginia Grind Basketball Team and West Virginia University were scoring the team’s on their performances during the face-off.

Grant said both groups of elementary and middle schools would be receiving first, second, and third places within their categories.

He explained what was in it for the winning schools.

“It’s going to come with monetary prizes, all of the students get a t-shirt, gold, silver, bronze medals, a banner to hold in their gym and a trophy,” said Grant.

First place winners Friday were Frametown Elementary from Braxton County and Teays Valley Christian Middle School from Putnam County.

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West Virginia

Water, Sewer Providers Must Assess Security Risks As Cyberattacks Rise – West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Published

9 hours ago

May 17, 2024

Press Room

Water, Sewer Providers Must Assess Security Risks As Cyberattacks Rise – West Virginia Public Broadcasting

In late 2023, reports of foreign cyberattacks targeting local water systems across the United States spurred calls for providers to strengthen their cyber protections nationwide.

Now, the Public Service Commission of West Virginia (PSC) announced it will require all water and sewer utility providers across West Virginia to complete cybersecurity investigations.

The investigations require providers to assess their cyber risks, with financial support from federal agencies like the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Water and sewer systems will also be required to develop long-term cybersecurity plans, and appoint an employee to oversee plan compliance.

“This is a seriously developing problem across the nation and the Public Service Commission wants to be in the forefront of helping assure the safety of data concerning utilities and their customers,” PSC Chairman Charlotte Lane said in a press release Thursday. “These attacks are widespread and will become more common, we fear, as we rely more and more on computers in our daily lives and in running our businesses.”

The PSC-prompted investigations mark another step in a months-long effort to reinforce water system cybersecurity in West Virginia as cyberattacks have continued to rise nationally.

In January, the Office of Environmental Health Services (OEHS) — part of the West Virginia Department of Health Bureau of Public Health — began coordinating cyberattack prevention initiatives with water providers across the state.

OEHS also coordinated with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to spread awareness about free cybersecurity assessments offered by the federal agency.

Water and sewer providers in West Virginia will be required to complete their investigations by July 15 — 60 days after the PSC order was released.

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West Virginia

West Virginia Falls Short in Ft. Worth

Published

16 hours ago

May 17, 2024

Press Room

Ft. Worth, TX – The Big 12 Conference leader in strikeouts, TCU junior starting pitcher Payton Tolle, kept the West Virginia bats at bey with 11 strikeouts to collected his seventh win of the season as the Mountaineers (31-20, 17-11) dropped game one to the Horned Frogs (31-17, 14-14) Friday night 6-3.

TCU took an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning after freshman Sam Myers and redshirt sophomore Jack Arthur hit back-to-back singles before a sacrifice bunt and a slow groundball down to third from redshirt senior Kurtis Byrne for the sacrifice RBI put the game’s first run on the board.

The Horned Frogs added a pair of runs in the second when junior Brody Green lined a leadoff single up the middle and sophomore Anthony Silva drilled an RBI double into the gap in left centerfield. Then, freshman Ryder Robinson hit a sacrifice RBI groundball to first for a 3-0 lead.

Sophomore Benjamin Lumsden put the Mountaineers on the board in the third with a solo home run, his seventh of the season.

Anthony Silva lifted a two-run home run in the fourth to extend the TCU lead to four, 5-1.

West Virginia got back within three in the fifth after Lumsden worked a full count walk, sophomore Skylar King advanced Lumsden with a bunt and sophomore Logan Sauve smacked the 0-2 pitch through the left side for an RBI single.

In the bottom of the frame and with two outs and the bases loaded, Green hit a high chopping ground ball over the head of freshman reliever Chase Myer for the sacrifice RBI and a 6-2 Horned Frogs’ lead.

The Mountaineers loaded the bases in the eighth, and with no outs on the board, TCU head coach called to his bullpen for the team leader in saves, sophomore lefty Ben Abeldt. WVU senior Reed Chumley brought a runner across with a sacrifice fly to left field but that’s all the Mountaineers could muster as the Horned Frogs were holding onto a 6-3 lead.

Ben Abeldt struck out two in the ninth as part of a 1-2-3 inning to hold any potential of a Mountaineer rally for the 6-3 decision.

West Virginia will look to even the series on Saturday in game two. The first pitch is set for approximately 7:30 p.m. EST and the action will stream on ESPN+.

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