MINERAL COUNTY, W.Va. — More than 24,800 votes are already in ahead of Saturday’s Special Election in West Virginia on the proposed Roads to Prosperity Amendment.
If approved, it would allow for $1.6 billion in bond sales for road construction projects.
As of 9 a.m. Tuesday, the Secretary of State’s Office reported 24,864 voters had cast ballots during the early voting period which runs through Wednesday.
Governor Jim Justice said, at that pace, projections were calling for a 10 percent to 12 percent overall total voter turnout in the Special Election out of more than 1.2 million registered voters.
“Ten to 12 percent turnout is so low that the naysayers could win the day,” Justice said.
On Tuesday, Justice took his town hall tour with state Transportation Secretary Tom Smith and others in support of the road bond amendment to the Eastern Panhandle with five stops through the day in Keyser, Moorefield, Berkeley Springs, Charles Town and Martinsburg.
His first town hall was at Potomac State College of West Virginia University.
“In lots of ways, Charleston doesn’t even know you exist,” he told the crowd in Mineral County. “You’re in a different ozone layer really than where Charleston can imagine what your problems are.”
Justice said passage of the bond vote, making available “your dollars” in his words, could change that since the list of road construction projects that will see funding include those in Mineral County and surrounding counties.
“This is a humdinger, I mean this is a slam dunk. Absolutely, it’s our launching pad to really, really good stuff and, at that end of the day, you’re going to make that decision,” Justice said.
On Monday, Justice was in both Barboursville and Hurricane. On Thursday, he’s planning to be in Lansing.
Early voting for the Special Election began on Sept. 22.
On Election Day, polls will be open Saturday from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. MetroNews will follow the results after the polls close at wvmetronews.com.