CHARLESTON, W.Va. — County clerks across West Virginia say they’re hoping to increase voter turnout during Tuesday’s Primary Election after the 10-day early voting period didn’t draw as many voters as expected.
Harrison County Clerk John Spires said their numbers were down, which is surprising for a big election year that includes races for president, governor and other key statewide races.
“Initially I was anticipating a larger turnout, but if early voting is an indicator, and it typically is, I don’t think that we will see a very large turnout,” Spires told MetroNews on Monday.
Early voting ended Saturday. Spires said Harrison County had about a 6 percent voter turnout.
“Right around 2,827 voters turned out for early voting. We ended up getting pretty close to average with that number. We were hoping to have a slightly better turnout just because some of our local races are pretty hotly contested and will likely be decided in the primary,” he said.
Putnam County Clerk Brian Wood echoed the same concerns about low voter turnout.
“It was a little lower turnout than I thought it would be for a presidential primary election, but it was a higher turnout than the 2022 non-presidential election,” he said.
There were 2,435 early voters in 2022 in Putnam County compared to 3,525 early voters this year.
An over $2 million fire services levy that failed to pass in Putnam County in the 2022 general election is on the ballot again this Primary Election. The renewal of the City of Nitro levy is also on the ballot in Putnam County.
But Wood said the big race to watch will be for governor. He said he believes that race is what will drive more voters to the polls.
“We have a pretty good governor’s race going on, so hopefully that will bring out some people. I think the presidential race kind of being set as to who the nominees are will slow down the turn out,” Wood said.
Spires said it’s common to see more voters during the General Election, but he said voting in the Primary helps shape what the General will look like in November.
“There’s a bunch of candidates that you can help advance to the General. Some people might think it’s set in stone, maybe for the presidential those are slightly decided, but for things like governor, attorney general, there’s a lot of statewide races,” he said.
Good morning! Warm & dry today. Showers & t-storms move in tonight, remaining possible across the area Tues through Wed. No severe storms are expected, but we'll need to watch for flooding in areas hit by multiple rounds of heavy rain. #WVwx #OHwx #KYwx #VAwx pic.twitter.com/LYMLbL6l6n
— NWS Charleston, WV (@NWSCharlestonWV) May 13, 2024
Voters will need to watch for wet roads Tuesday. Joe Curtis, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Charleston, said it will rain for much of the day.
“People should be fine getting out and about, maybe bring an umbrella or a rain jacket,” he said. “If you happen to come across a flooded roadway, we always say turn around, don’t drown, but the threat for flooding is going to be low on Tuesday.”
Curtis said it won’t rain all day long. The rain will then taper off Tuesday evening before another round of storms arrives on Wednesday.
“We are going to start to see those chances of showers and storms in the morning. We may get a little bit of a break around midday before we get some more showers and storms by the afternoon,” he said.
MetroNews will provide live comprehensive Decision 2024 coverage beginning at 7:06 p.m. Tuesday on MetroNews stations and at wvmetronews.com.