VOTING ENCOURAGED — West Virginia Secretary of State Kris Warner, the state’s top election official, visited Brooke High School Wednesday to encourage teens to register to vote. Seventeen-year-olds in the state can register if their 18th birthday falls before the general election. -- Warren Scott

WELLSBURG — West Virginia Secretary of State Kris Warner said he often hears, particularly from young voters, “My vote really doesn’t matter. I’m just one vote.”

But the state’s chief election official told Brooke High School students Wednesday that five municipal elections last year included tied races, requiring their outcome to be decided with the casting of lots or flipping of a coin.

“Your vote matters,” Warner told the senior class members while encouraging them to register for next year’s elections.

Under state law, a 17-year-old resident can register if he or she will be 18 before the November general election.

Warner noted the late U.S. Sen. Jennings Randolph, a native of Salem, W.Va., pushed for the federal voting age to be lowered from 21 to 18 after President Franklin D. Roosevelt lowered the military draft age to 18 while faced with World War II.

He noted Randolph was known to say, “If you’re old enough for bullets, you’re old enough for ballots.”

While Randolph, a Democrat, sponsored legislation in support of the change 11 times, it wasn’t until 1971, when the U.S. was engaged in the Vietnam War, that the 26th Amendment was adopted, lowering the minimum voting age for states from 21 to 18.

Warner said about 1,700 students registered at more than 20 high schools he and his staff visited in September for National Voter Registration Month. He’s slated to appear at Oak Glen High School today.

Since 1994, the Secretary of State’s Office has issued an award in Randolph’s honor.

Schools where 85 percent of eligible students have been registered are named silver award winners, while those with 100 percent registering are named gold winners.

In addition to receiving a commemorative plaque, each of the winning schools is invited to send two students to visit the State Capitol, where they will spend the day with Warner and attend a session of the state legislature.

“When I heard about it, I said, I’m going to get that award,” said Dale Butler, Brooke County election clerk and a 1982 graduate of Brooke High School.

Butler said about 185 Brooke High School seniors are eligible to register as voters for next year.

She noted among the many places they may do so are the county clerk’s office at the Brooke County Courthouse, the Brooke County Public Library and the local office of the Department of Motor Vehicles.

She and Warner noted they also may register online at GoVoteWV.com.

On Tuesday, school officials sent an automated call to students’ parents, reminding the eligible teens to bring their driver’s license or state ID so they could register on Wednesday if they wished.

Students who asked if they could use their driver permits or take the forms home with them were told they could.

When Warner invited questions from his young audience, several asked about various aspects of the election process.

Asked the difference between the Republican Party, of which Warner is a member, and the Democrat Party, he suggested the student visit the websites of each to review the platforms posted there.

Warner stressed he wasn’t there to garner support for any party but to encourage all eligible students to vote.

“We all have the opportunity to elect the people who are going to make the laws we live by every day,” he told them.

“No one is any greater or less than anyone else. We’re all equal when we get to the ballot box,” said Warner.

Butler told the students, “Voting is essential to our way of government.”

Noting she had been a member of the high school’s political action club, she said serving as the county’s election clerk is her “dream job.”

Of the election process she said, “This is government of, by and for the people. It doesn’t work without us. Make your voices heard.”