West Virginia’s Secretary of State Betty Ireland spoke about her responsibilities and activities as the Secretary of State. Her office oversees voting, starting new and managing existing business in regards to regulations, licenses, etc.
Some of the activities she conducts were:
- Talking to businesses to hear what problems they face in WV.
- Striving to improve the business environment to make it more inviting for companies to start or move to WV.
- Working on changing the way government manages business to make it easier rather than difficult for companies to start up and operate in WV.
- Working on better health plans so business can afford to obtain health policies for their workers.
- Modernizing the tax structure.
- Working to encourage small businesses to start and operate in WV.
- Improving the work force so that young people stay in the state rather than leaving for employment in other states.
- Assisting in expanding research and development projects at the major WV universities which will in turn spring growth in business to exploit these R&D activities. Also improve the infrastructure and educational structures to give young people skills and abilities that can be used within the state.
Her five major goals have been
- compliant w/health standards
- fight electron fraud
- use technology
- maintain a trained staff at SoS office
- use best practives
She spent time talking about the elections and the efforts to make it easier for people to register and vote. Though 85% of eligible voters registered, only around 60% of them voted, and even few numbers of younger voters. Voting requires 10,000 pole workers; 5 persons per polling place. Average age of a poll worker is 72. Deadline to register for the general election is October 14
For more information on voting, click here: http://www.wvsos.com/elections/candidates/electionpages.htm#Voting
SoS also has information on all charities registered in WV. Go to this link for more information: http://www.wvsos.com/cslist/index.aspx
You can visit the SoS’s web site at: www.wvsos.org to get more information about the SoS’s activities and responsibilities.
