Del. Vernon Criss, R-Wood, has filed to run as a write-in candidate in the upcoming November election to hold onto his House of Delegates seat.

Criss, the House Finance chair, lost his reelection bid in May to Charles Hartzog, a 23-year-old Walmart employee heavily backed by Gov. Patrick Morrisey. 

The governor and Criss have openly clashed over state budget matters. The dispute prompted Morrisey to travel to Wood County and campaign against Criss last spring ahead of the May primary election.

The Republican primary was closed this year to independent voters, prompting Criss to file as a write-in candidate with the Secretary of State’s Office on Monday afternoon. He believes the closed primary impacted his race results in Wood County.

“Approximately 40% of the vote in my district were independents, and they did not have the chance to vote in this primary, and because of the repercussions of that, people (are) finally waking up and determined that they didn’t have the opportunity to vote,” said Criss, who represents the 12th district in the House. “The only way they can have an opportunity to vote is to be … on the ballot through a write-in process.”

Criss, who was seeking a sixth consecutive term in the House, also cited low voter turnout in the May election as an issue in his race. Hartzog received 688 votes in the closed primary compared to 422 for Criss. The vast majority of registered voters didn’t participate in the election, he said, or couldn’t vote on the GOP ticket due to the closed primary. 

“That’s less than 4% of the citizens in that district that gave (Hartzog) the opportunity to be the Republican nominee,” Criss said. 

West Virginia permits individuals to file as an official write-in candidate by submitting paperwork with the proper filing officer no later than the 49th day before the election.

Only official write-in candidates will have their votes tallied; persons who simply have their name written on a ballot are not eligible to win any election, according to the Secretary of State’s office. The write-in deadline for candidates is Sept. 15.

Official write-in candidates’ names will be posted at the entrance of each polling place and will be provided at the poll worker table inside the polling place upon request by a voter.

Morrisey’s spring political attacks on Criss centred on the Hope Scholarship and educational freedom – key issues for the governor. The House Finance Committee, under leadership of Criss, considered a bill this year to put guardrails  — like banning the use of funds at out-of-state schools – on the $300 million education voucher program. The cost of the program skyrocketed this year due the Hope Scholarship opening up to all West Virginia students for the first time. 

While lawmakers didn’t end up making any change to parents’ use of the voucher program, the proposed changes resulted in Americans for Prosperity’s West Virginia chapter strongly opposing Criss. AFP-WV has deep ties to Morrisey.

“It was amazing the fact that the governor personally and several of his people provided some even door-to-door operations, along with coordinating staff from AFP … to go out and spend nearly $100,000 to have against me in this process,” Criss said. “It’s up to us to determine how the monies are to be spent for the state of West Virginia …  I think simply that he just was doing whatever he could to make sure that I wasn’t going to return.”

Criss said he wants to continue work on the state’s finances and touts a record of cutting taxes for residents. He plans to campaign this fall.

“We we have done some amazing things as far as the other structure of our tax system is concerned, and I think that the people, especially in Wood County, recognize that and they see the value in having somebody like myself in the Legislature to look out for the betterment of Wood County, and I think they need to have an opportunity to do that again,” he said. 

Nov. 3 is Election Day. Voter registration deadline is Oct. 13. 

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