Series 7. Clean Elections, 1996-2009

Series 7 consists of materials related to OVEC’s Clean Elections (or Clean Money Election Reform) initiative. OVEC recognized that coal mine owners and operators, bankers, insurance executives, timber barons, and other industrial interests donated large sums of money to West Virginia political campaigns and in effect bought state level elections. Clean Money was a broad-based initiative intended to empower voters by removing big corporate money from politics and eliminating election buying, increasing transparency and accountability in elections, election reform, and non-partisan judiciary. Additionally, voter education and the protection of West Virginians' right to vote were part of this initiative.
Series 7 materials include legal papers, newspaper articles and clippings, Clean Election legislation, correspondence, and WV Clean Election Act draft documents. Additionally, this series includes materials related to other states’ efforts to provide Clean Elections. The states are Massachusetts, Maine, Arizona, and Wisconsin.