An emergency lawsuit filed against the county clerks of Cabell and Kanawha counties for refusing to accept online voter registration was rejected by the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals on Tuesday.
The petition was rejected on the same day that it was filed by Jamie Lynn Crofts, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union in West Virginia, and Charleston lawyer Anthony Majestro on behalf of Benjamin Sheridan, a House of Delegates candidate and Abby Holmes, a Cabell county resident who tried to register online to vote.
The lawsuit asked for an emergency writ of mandamus to force the county clerks to accept online voter registration.
"We're disappointed that it was rejected so quickly," Crofts said. "But right now we're considering our other options."
Kanawha County Clerk Vera McCormick and Cabell County Clerk Karen Cole said last month that they felt uncomfortable with security provisions in West Virginia's voter registration website, which went online in October. Both clerks, once they received notification of online voter registration, had been mailing papers out to the voter to complete before they would accept the registration.
The state's other 53 counties were accepting the online voter registration without any additional steps.
McCormick said that she had been accepting online voter registration without any additional steps since the Secretary of State Natalie Tennant sent a letter to the Kanawha County Commission in April requesting that the county accept online voter registration.
Cole could not be reached to find out if she has been allowing people to vote online without requiring a physical signature.
McCormick said that she will keep registering voters who register online per the request of Tennant, but hopes that some of her concerns are addressed as voter registration continues through the summer.
"I think maybe this summer after the election we'll be able to work out some of the concerns of the county clerk," McCormick said.
Croft said that she and Majestro will continue to research the situation and see how the May 10 election goes before they decide on their next step.
Reach Daniel Desrochers at dan.desrochers@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4886 or follow @drdesrochers on Twitter.