Free Speech

WEST VIRGINIA CODE

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§3-8-11. Specific acts forbidden; penalties.
(a) Any person who shall, directly or indirectly, by himself, or by any other person on his behalf, make use of, or threaten to make use of, any force, violence or restraint, or inflict, or threaten to inflict, any damage, harm or loss, upon or against any person, or by any other means attempt to intimidate or exert any undue influence, in order to induce such person to vote or refrain from voting, or on account of such person having voted or refrained from voting, at any election, or who shall, by abduction, duress or any fraudulent device or contrivance, impede or prevent the free exercise of the suffrage by any elector, or shall thereby compel, induce or prevail upon any elector either to vote or refrain from voting for or against any particular candidate or measure; or

(b) Any person who, being an employer, or acting for or on behalf of any employer, shall give any notice or information to his employees, containing any threat, either express or implied, intended or calculated to influence the political view or actions of the workmen or employees; or

(c) Any person who shall, knowingly, make or publish, or

 cause to be made or published, any false statement in 

regard to any candidate, which statement is intended or 

tends to affect any voting at any election whatever; or

(d) Any person who shall pay any owner, publisher, editor or employee or any newspaper or other periodical, to advocate or oppose editorially, any candidate for nomination or election, or any political party, or any measure to be submitted to the vote of the people; or any owner, publisher, editor or employee, who shall solicit or accept such payment:

Is guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction thereof, shall be fined not more than ten thousand dollars, or confined in jail for not more than one year, or, in the discretion of the court, shall be subject to both such fine and imprisonment.