Report: Closed Republican Primary May Have Led To Poor Voter Turnout

Secretary of State Kris Warner is calling on Republicans, or the state legislature, to make the rules about who can vote in the state’s primary elections uniform.  

The state Republican Party voted in 2025 to close the primary election to members of the Republican party only. Previously, unaffiliated voters could choose a Republican or Democratic ballot.  

Unaffiliated voters were still able to vote in the 2026 Democratic primary.  

On Thursday, the Secretary of State’s Elections Division published a report that noted this election was the first with different rules for the two parties in decades.  

Secretary of State Kris Warner said that Primary Election turnout this year was the lowest in 12 years. He blamed that partly on confusion at the polls.  

“By most measures, this midterm election was excellent from an election integrity standpoint. However, no election is perfect, and there is always room for improvement,” Warner said. “From an administrative standpoint, two of the greatest issues across the state were low voter turnout and the lack of uniformity between the two major parties’ primary elections. It is possible that the two are related.”  

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 42 states are either completely open or closed to unaffiliated voters, allow voters to choose their party when they vote, or have a multi-party primary system. West Virginia, however, is among only 8 other states that allow unaffiliated voters to participate in one major party’s primary, but not the other.  

“There is a basic principle in elections that the same rules must be fairly applied to everybody. So when we see not one, but two legal challenges filed as a result of inconsistent standards, it’s a major red flag,” Warner said. “It might work in the minority of states with semi-closed primaries, but we have real-world examples from this year showing that it did not work in West Virginia.” 

Following the 2026 Primary Election in Fayette County, an executive committee candidate filed a challenge based on allegations of unaffiliated voters participating in the Republican Primary. The evidence was sufficient to have that election overturned, and it was ordered to reappear on the General Election ballot. In Harrison County, a legislative candidate filed a similar challenge that was resolved without ordering a new election. 

“Objectively, it is clear that a lack of uniformity between political party primaries hurts election integrity,” Warner continued. 

Voter turnout in the last four midterm general elections, when unaffiliated voters had the choice to participate in either major party’s primary election, was:  

• 2022 had 42.91% turnout;  

• 2018 had 47.93% turnout;  

• 2014 had 37.8% turnout, but the number of participating voters (462,864) was nearly the same as in 2026; and  

• 2010 had 44.0% turnout.  

“For the 2022 General, there were 1,156,147 registered voters. Despite having 54,150 more registered voters in 2026 than in 2022—17,872 of which were added after the 2026 Primary—turnout was still the lowest we’ve seen since 2014,” Warner said. 

Following the 2026 Primary legal challenges, it is generally believed that the majority of instances where unaffiliated voters cast Republican ballots during the Primary Election were identified as poll worker confusion, voter confusion, and human error.  

“The vast majority of those errors can be avoided if our state’s political party primary elections are administered uniformly,” Warner said. “To ensure the integrity of West Virginia elections, our voters and poll workers deserve fairness in the process, and the same rules should apply to everyone regardless their party affiliation.” 

Warner continued, “The Republican Party has an opportunity to swiftly take-up this issue for the betterment of our State. Alternatively, the legislature has the authority to fix this issue statutorily and bring the state back in line with the 42 other states with uniform standards. Whatever the avenue, we must have uniformity. The integrity of West Virginia’s elections depends on it.”