Elections to the West Virginia House of Delegates were held on November 3, 1964, to elect 100 candidates to the House to serve a two-year term. The Democrats greatly expanded their supermajority in the chamber, increasing their seat share from 76 to 91, a net gain of 15 seats, pushing the Republicans to a single-digit seat count in the House for the first time in state history, totaling nine seats.
This was the first election since the reapportionment of 1964. For the first time since 1900, multiple counties were placed within delegate districts which elected between one and two delegates; all counties had previously been allocated at least one delegate. An effort to prevent this was put forth, culminating in the so-called 1964 Fair Representation Amendment, a ballot measure to guarantee each county representation in the House, which was soundly defeated.
More populated counties were allocated multiple delegates, allowing voters to cast a number of votes equal to the county's delegate allocation using plurality block voting. Kanawha County was the largest district, returning fourteen delegates to the House. As a result, about 278% more votes were cast in the House of Delegates election than in the concurrent gubernatorial election.
Reapportionment A new apportionment plan was adopted on January 1, 1964. Counties in bold gained members, while counties in italics lost members. This plan was drawn in the wake of the landmark United States Supreme Court decision Reynolds v. Sims, which required state legislative districts to be roughly equal in population. The state had last reapportioned the House in 1951, and this plan would be used until 1974.
The plan moved several counties which had each elected their own delegate into multi-county districts, reducing their representation in the chamber. This freed up many delegate seats which were redistributed to more populated areas such as the Northern panhandle and in Southern West Virginia.
By district
District 1 (Berkeley and Morgan): 2 delegates District 2 (Grant and Tucker): 1 delegate (−1) District 3 (Hardy and Pendleton): 1 delegate (−1) District 4 (Greenbrier and Pocahontas): 2 delegates (−1) District 5 (Doddridge and Tyler): 1 delegate (−1) District 6 (Pleasants and Ritchie): 1 delegate (−1) District 7 (Calhoun, Gilmer, and Wirt): 1 delegate (−2)
By county
Barbour: 1 delegate Boone: 2 delegates (+1) Braxton: 1 delegate Brooke: 2 delegates (+1) Cabell: 6 delegates (+1) Clay: 1 delegate Fayette: 3 delegates (−1) Hampshire: 1 delegate Hancock: 2 delegate (+1) Harrison: 4 delegates Jackson: 1 delegate Jefferson: 1 delegate Kanawha: 14 delegates (+3) Lewis: 1 delegate Lincoln: 1 delegate Logan: 3 delegates (−1) Marion: 3 delegates Marshall: 2 delegates Mason: 1 delegate McDowell: 4 delegates (−1) Mercer: 4 delegates (+1) Mineral: 1 delegate Mingo: 2 delegates Monongalia: 3 delegates Monroe: 1 delegate Nicholas: 1 delegate Ohio: 4 delegates (+1) Preston: 1 delegate Putnam: 1 delegate Raleigh: 4 delegates Randolph: 1 delegate Roane: 1 delegate Summers: 1 delegate Taylor: 1 delegate Upshur: 1 delegate Wayne: 2 delegates Webster: 1 delegate Wetzel: 1 delegate Wood: 4 delegates (+1) Wyoming: 2 delegates
Summary