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Natalie Tennant on Government Reform
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I learned "make-do" attitude via my upbringing on a farm
Coming from an upbringing shared with six siblings on a farm in Marion County, West Virginia Secretary of State Natalie Tennant said she knows how to be resourceful. Her father sold cows to fund her college tuition, and Tennant said that she has employed
a similar "make-do" attitude while serving as West Virginia's secretary of state.During her tenure in that job,
Tennant says she has worked to make the office more efficient and also improved services for voters and business owners. "I think that we have to use all the resources we have. I've streamlined & cut red tape.
I've cut wasteful spending, and that translated into doing more with less. It's the same thing I learned on the farm, and I saved $3 million in the secretary of state's office and gave it back to the taxpayers."
Source: Beckley Register-Herald on 2014 West Virginia Senate race
, Mar 2, 2014
18-month investigation into stolen election: 3 convictions
Tennant said she played an instrumental role in ensuring justice was served when three elected Democratic officials tried to steal an election. As the chief election official, Tennant said her office conducted an
18-month-long investigation into the matter. "We worked with the attorney general's office, we gave them information, and those three Democrat elected officials served time in federal prison because I put West Virginia first."
Source: Beckley Register-Herald on 2014 West Virginia Senate race
, Mar 2, 2014
OpEd: Suppress voting by requiring change-of-address cards
Thousands of voters in West Virginia will soon receive a postcard in the mail asking them if their address has changed and if they want to remain a registered voter. There are about 1.2 million registered voters in West Virginia, and county clerks
will be mailing more than 335,000 notifications to voters who may have changed their address or who have been idle for two federal election cycles."The Secretary of State's Office is committed to protecting the integrity of those processes
and keeping our voter rolls clean," Natalie Tennant said. "Most of the people receiving notifications will just have to fill out the notification and send it back."
If a voter receives a notification and does not fill it out and return it to their
county clerk they will be placed on the list of "inactive" voters. These people are still registered to vote and may vote in 2014. Voters who remain inactive for two federal election cycles will have their voter registration.
Source: Logan Banner on 2014 West Virginia Senate race
, Jan 1, 2014
Supports electronic voter registration and vote-by-mail
Senate Bill 477, a bill that modernizes the voter registration system, passed the state legislature today. "Citizens will be able to fill out their voter registration application electronically at the DMV, at their local library, or at their house--
anywhere they have access to a computer," Secretary Tennant said. "This legislation makes it easier for people to apply to become a registered voter, but still keeps in place all the safeguards to make sure these people live where they say they live.
This legislation will cut down on the number of paper applications county clerks will have to process, saving some valuable time and reducing costs." SB477 is the most recent of Secretary Tennant's bold initiatives to modernize the elections process.
Other successful efforts were a pilot project that allowed deployed military and their families vote over a secure internet connection, a Vote By Mail pilot project, and a process that allowed counties to utilize community voting locations.
Source: W.V. Secretary of State website
, Apr 12, 2013
Voter photo ID laws place unrealistic barriers
At the Pew Center on the States' Voting in America 2012 conference, Secretary of State Natalie Tennant said [of a recent W.V. investigation], "photo ID laws would not have prevented elected officials from manipulating the election process.
I am not against voter ID laws if it means every single person who wants to vote has a valid ID to present at the polls. Even if we have 99% of people with ID, that's still not enough. We cannot place unrealistic barriers or arbitrary rules that will
impact a certain group of people or keep a single person from being able to cast a ballot when they are legally registered to vote. I am dedicated to providing open, fair, and honest elections to the people of West Virginia--and making sure everyone
follows the rules."Tennant also pointed out webcasting of voter information press conferences, the revision and improvement of poll worker training materials, and being present in all 55 counties on election day to work closely with election officials
Source: W.V. Secretary of State website
, Dec 10, 2012
Page last updated: Sep 02, 2017