Profile
WV Secretary of State Mac Warner is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and the West Virginia University School of Law. He also holds two Masters Degrees - one in International Law from the University of Virginia and one from the Army’s Judge Advocate General’s School.
During his 23-year career in the United States Army, Secretary Warner served on four continents, deploying to military hot spots around the world while also serving on the staff at the U.S. Army War College.
Prior to being elected West Virginia’s 30th Secretary of State, Lt. Colonel Warner served five years with the U.S. State Department in Afghanistan.
Since taking his oath of office on January 16, 2017, Secretary Warner has been recognized throughout the country for his innovation in cybersecurity and election preparation. Under his leadership, West Virginia became the first state in the nation to offer a mobile voting application designed specifically for overseas military personnel deployed to remote areas of the world during election time.
Knowing that safe and secure elections begin with accurate voter registration lists, Secretary Warner developed a comprehensive strategy to update WV’s voter files in all of the state’s 55 counties. Over the last 29 months, more than 160,000 outdated, duplicate, deceased and convicted felon voter files were eliminated from the state’s voter registration lists. At the same time, Secretary Warner and the county clerks implemented an aggressive strategy to register more than 130,000 new, eligible and “live” voters…..which includes nearly 36,000 high school students.
Since becoming Secretary of State, Secretary Warner has led an effort for West Virginia to secure federal funding to assist counties with more than $12 million in new voting equipment, state of the art election technology and physical security.
Under Secretary Warner’s leadership, West Virginia has become recognized as a national leader in election cybersecurity. In 2018, Secretary Warner’s Elections Division developed the first statewide cybersecurity conference for county clerks and municipal elections officials. In July of 2019 as a featured presenter at the National Association of Secretaries of State national conference, Secretary Warner released a comprehensive public education campaign on “Russian & Foreign Influence in American Elections”.
In addition to his duties as the state’s chief elections officer, Secretary Warner also serves as the state’s chief business official. Today in West Virginia, there are more than 117,000 entities licensed to do business in the Mountain State.
In 2018 in an effort to make opening a new business as efficient as possible, Secretary Warner worked with the WV Legislature to establish the WV One Stop Business Center -- the first four-agency single-location business and licensing center in the nation. The operation of the WV One Stop is complimented by two new Business Hub regional offices – one in Martinsburg and one in Clarksburg.
What used to take up to two weeks to process an application to open a new business in West Virginia….can now take less than two hours.
Under Secretary Warner’s leadership, “It has NEVER been easier to open a new business in West Virginia!”.
Secretary Warner is a sixth generation West Virginian having grown up in the Kanawha Valley. He and his wife Debbie are the parents of four grown children, two sons and two daughters, all of whom are or have been officers in the United States military. They have two grandchildren and another one on the way.
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