MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Monongalia County Clerk Carye Blaney completed the tally of the 2026 midterm election Monday.
Commissioners presided over the process as Blaney worked with both parties on Canvass day. Two random precincts are selected, and the ballots are hand counted to make the totals match the electronic result provided on election night. The bipartisan look into the 2026 midterm showed no discrepancies that changed any result.
“We have tally teams made up of poll workers of the Democratic and Republican political parties who actually hand count the ballots in those two randomly selected precincts,” Blaney said.
There were 333 provisional and absentee ballots that were processed on canvassing day at the Monongalia County Election Headquarters at the Mountaineer Mall. A total of 170 of those ballots were cleared and counted by the bipartisan panel.
“The reasons why the 163 were not counted are because voters were not even registered to vote at all, or they voted at the wrong precinct,” Blaney said. “But the vast majority of the vote not counted was because the voter was not registered.”
Blaney said voter turnout and total ballots cast were in record territory for this election.
“We had 28,782 ballots that were cast, and we have 67,332 registered voters for this election for a 42.75 percent voter turnout,” Blaney said.
In 2022, Blaney said a total of 26,834 of the 61,806 registered voters cast a ballot in the general election.
“Even though the voter turnout percentage might be the same, or within a few points, there are at least an additional 2,200 voters that came out this time,” Blaney said.
The results of the canvass were forwarded to Secretary of State Kris Warner at 4:10 p.m. Monday, according to Blaney. The Monongalia County results will be merged in order to verify final totals in the district, including more than one county like State Senate District 13.
“We do have senatorial districts that we share with other counties, and those cannot be certified until the final county within that county has completed their canvass also.”