Morgantown Voters Look To National Races

Ahead of Election Day Tuesday, many voters in Morgantown have already cast their ballots. According to the Secretary of State’s office, more than 15,000 voters in Monongalia County have cast their ballots in early voting as of Tuesday.

State and county races like House Delegates and county commissioner outnumber federal races four to one on most Monongalia County ballots this year, but some voters feel out of the loop on local issues.

Brittany Tichnell said she voted on Monday but wasn’t thrilled about her options in the presidential election.

“I don’t want a fascist dictator. I don’t think either options are really that great,” she said. “The two party system is not what our founding forefathers of this country wanted. But lesser of two evils.”

Tichnell said down ballot races are hardly on her radar.

“It’s not getting out there, at least to our generation, who’s running in the local (elections),” she said. “We also don’t have kids, so maybe that’s it. There’s a lot of school ballots and all that, but most of it, we just don’t see it. We only see the Presidential one.” 

The issue cuts across generations. Ruth Stone says she’s only following one local sheriff’s election.

“I’m not as involved as I have been in the past, because I don’t get the newspaper anymore, but at least I can hear things on television and get an idea of what’s going on,” she said.

Cheat Lake resident Michele Herring also said her primary motivation to vote is the presidential election. She admitted to being unaware of who was running for West Virginia House of Delegates in her district, but said she does pay attention to other local races for county commission and board of education.

“I guess because I see the local impact of what they do and what they can do,” Herring said. “I always watched it for my children and now my grandchildren.”

Conor McCallister, who recently moved to Morgantown from California, said he tends to vote Republican down the ballot.

“But before I go to the voting polls, I’m gonna just look at what the ticket is this weekend and just kind of figure out if that’s something I want to do,” he said. “While I tend to vote Republican, I’m not married to that. If they got issues that I don’t agree with, they got stances like, ‘No thanks,’ I’m not gonna vote for them.”

Ted Dobish was on his way to vote when WVPB caught up with him. He said all candidates running for office should focus more on issues and the action they will take if elected.

“They spend more time complaining about what the other’s not going to do, or all their bad things,” Dobish said. “I typically go on to USA Today, they do a whole A to Z of what each candidate they believe is really going to happen, and that’s where I base it on. I don’t listen to all of the crazy commercials.”

For Stone and her friend Fay Cortopassi, abortion is the defining issue of the election.

“A man does not have the right to tell me what to do with my body, considering you guys – men – came out of a woman,” Cortopassi said. “We created you without you, without us, you guys don’t exist. And in this country, honestly, I think women are considered second class citizens.”