CHARLESTON, W.Va. — There are two days left in West Virginia’s 10-day early voting period and it appears this year’s voting numbers will far outpace the number of voters who turned out in the 2022 midterm election early voted period.
West Virginia Secretary of State Kris Warner reported Thursday that 115,855 early voters had taken to the polls, as of the end of Wednesday. Early voting continues in the Mountain State through Saturday.
Warner said the number is approximately a 30-percent increase since the same period four years ago. He said that 109,902 West Virginians have voted in person, while 5,953 people have completed absentee ballots.
According to Warner, the latest voter turnout numbers represent 9.6-percent of West Virginia’s 1.2 million registered voters.
Warner reported, as of Wednesday, 45,191 registered Republicans had voted early compared to 42,330 Democrats and nearly 18,000 unaffiliated voters.
Ohio County early voting
Ohio County early vote totals are keeping in step with the state.
Ohio County Election Coordinator Erin Allietta told MetroNews Thursday more than 2,400 residents had voted. She’s hoping to hit 3,000 voters by the end of Saturday. That would be around 9-10 percent of registered voters in her county.
Allietta said the state Senate race between Senator Laura Wakim Chapman, R-Ohio, and Del. Sean Fluharty, D-Ohio, appears to be getting voters to the polls.
“I do think that the local races are primarily what’s driving the interest,” Allieta said. “There’s the Senate race and we do have some pretty popular candidates for our delegate races too.”
Allieta said most of the early voters are 60 or older. The Secretary of State’s Office said Democrats (1,088) had voted than Republicans (823) in Ohio County entering Thursday.
Kanawha County early voting steady
Longtime Kanawha County Clerk Vera McCormick said her county is running right out a 10 percent voter turnout with two days to go in early voting. McCormick told MetroNews vote totals were nearing 13,000 Thursday afternoon. She’s hoping to end with 17,000 early voters.
“All of our locations (10 early voting locations) have been busy,” McCormick said. “The ones that are usually slow we’ve been surprised how busy they’ve been.”
McCormick said it’s promise the brisk business for early voting will relieve some of the pressure at the county’s voting precincts on election day.
“People like early voting and more and more people are starting to vote early,” she said.
Democrats (5,999) are far outdistancing Republicans (4,080) when it comes to early voting in Kanawha County.