Secretary of State maintains West Virginia’s elections are “safe, secure” after Trump claims – WV MetroNews

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia’s Secretary of State maintains that elections in the Mountain State are secure after voter information corruption claims by President Donald Trump.

Secretary of State Kris Warner joined MetroNews “Talkline” Friday to unpack claims by President Trump that voter information for over 200 million Americans had been compromised by China, starting in the 2020 election. Trump addressed the nation Thursday night and said 18 states had experienced corruption by the Chinese government in regard to voter data.

“Our elections are safe, secure, fair, and honest,” Warner said. “We have 55 county clerks and about 8,500 poll workers that did a phenomenal job in the Primary Election, and we’re ready, less than four months away to conduct a general midterm election. So, there’s confidence in our elections and we’re very proud of that.”

Warner said his office has not heard from federal officials.

“I know the President mentioned 18 states, but West Virginia’s not been contacted by the White House, by anyone in the intelligence community; nobody from FBI, CIA, DNI (Director of National Intelligence), or any other federal agency alerting us to any real or existing threat for our upcoming election,” he said.

If the White House or other officials reach out to the Secretary of State’s office with “actionable intelligence,” Warner said the election division will investigate it. Warner praised his office, saying that other states consider West Virginia as a gold standard for election safety,

“People from all over the country look to us,” Warner said. “So, obviously, anything that comes our way that we can act on, we want to increase our election security even further. But until then, we’re going to stay the course.”

West Virginia’s elections are quite secure, Warner emphasized, because the state uses ballot-marking devices. He said that not only are ballots marked electronically, but those votes are also noted on paper.

“Every vote in West Virginia cast is backed up by a paper ballot,” Warner said. “You get to see that paper ballot and make sure that it is exactly who you intended to vote for.”

Because of this commitment to security, Warner said, the election officers in West Virginia will catch anything out of the ordinary. He said his office tracks previous elections and understands the typical numbers of who votes in each precinct. Additionally, he said that 10 days after the election, an audit occurs to confirm results through hand counting.

West Virginia has also been one of the states targeted by the U.S. Department of Justice over disclosure of voter information. A federal judge tossed out a DOJ lawsuit against West Virginia earlier this week over voter data.

Warner said Trump’s claim doesn’t change West Virginia’s stance on refusing to hand over voter information to the DOJ.

“West Virginia law says I’m not to share personal information — that’s social security numbers, driver’s license numbers, tied to birth dates, in some cases, cell phone numbers, email addresses, your home address,” Warner said. “Again, there would need to be actionable intelligence that is going to strengthen our election security before we do anything further.”

While he said he agrees with the mission — keeping people outside of the law from voting — but this isn’t the way to do it. Warner said voter information is personal, and it doesn’t need to be “floating around to vendors” in the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C.