§3-10-2 Vacancy in office of governor. - West Virginia Statutes

§3-10-2. Vacancy in office of governor.
In case of the death, conviction or impeachment, failure to qualify, resignation or other disability of the governor, the president of the Senate shall act as governor until the vacancy is filled or the disability removed; and if the president of the Senate, for any of the above-named causes, shall be or become incapable of performing the duties of governor, the same shall devolve upon the speaker of the House of Delegates; and in all other cases where there is no one to act as governor, one shall be chosen by the joint vote of the Legislature. Whenever a vacancy shall occur in the office of governor before the first three years of the term shall have expired, a new election for governor shall take place to fill the vacancy. If the vacancy shall occur more than thirty days next preceding a general election, the vacancy shall be filled at such election and the acting governor for the time being shall issue a proclamation accordingly, which shall be published prior to such election as a Class II-O legal advertisement in compliance with the provisions of article three, chapter fifty-nine of this code, and the publication area for such publication shall be each county of the state. But if it shall occur less than thirty days next preceding such general election, and more than one year before the expiration of the term, such acting governor shall issue a proclamation, fixing a time for a special election to fill such vacancy, which shall be published as hereinbefore provided.

If the vacancy is to be filled at a general election and shall occur before the primary election to nominate candidates to be voted for at such general election, candidates to fill the vacancy shall be nominated at such primary election in accordance with the time requirements and the provisions and procedures prescribed in article five of this chapter. When nominations to fill such vacancy cannot be so accomplished at such primary election, and in all cases wherein the vacancy is to be filled at a special election, candidates to be voted for at such general or special elections shall be nominated by a state convention to be called, convened and held under the resolutions, rules and regulations of the political party executive committees of the state. The laws prescribing the manner of calling, constituting and holding conventions to nominate candidates for presidential electors shall, insofar as applicable, govern conventions to nominate candidates to fill any vacancy in any office to be filled by the voters of the state as a whole, except that, in lieu of the magisterial district conventions in the several counties, the county executive committee shall call and convene a county convention at the county seat with delegates thereto apportioned to and representative of the several magisterial districts of the county as provided in section twenty-one of article five of this chapter. The county convention shall proceed to select the county's prescribed number of state convention delegates from the several magisterial districts thereof and the chairman and secretary of the convention shall promptly certify the names and addresses of the persons so selected as delegates to the state convention to the chairman of the state executive committee of the political party.