Polls Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

West Virginia Early Votes Surpass Last Midterm Election

West Virginia is among the states where this year’s general election early and absentee voting numbers have already exceeded those from the 2014 midterms.

As of Thursday morning, 121,679 West Virginians had voted early or submitted an absentee ballot for the general election, according to the Secretary of State’s office.

By comparison, at the end of the 2014 general election, the state counted 97,388 early votes, and in 2010, that number was 108,264.

Marie Hill, the deputy clerk in Mercer County described turnout as “very heavy” there since its four early-voting sites opened Oct. 24.

“We had like 3,700 early voters in 2014, and this year we’ve had already 5,500 — and we still have another day to go,” she said Friday morning. “So we’ll probably reach maybe even 7,000.”

An apparent increase in voter engagement isn’t unique to West Virginia, said Michael McDonald of the United States Elections Project at the University of Florida.

“There are some people who are voting earlier than they may have in past elections, but that’s not the whole story,” he said.

West Virginia’s Senate race has been among the most closely watched this year. Incumbent Sen. Joe Manchin, a moderate Democrat, is facing Republican state attorney general Patrick Morrisey, who has the backing of President Donald Trump.

The state’s three congressional districts, two state Supreme Court seats and a number of state and local races are on the ballot, too, as well as two constitutional amendments.

Election Day is Tuesday, and early voting ends Saturday. Early voting locations and times are at www.GoVoteWV.com.

Subcommittee Reaches Compromise on Voter ID Bill

A House Judiciary Subcommittee reconsidered a bill Thursday that barely made it through the legislative process on the final night of the 2016 session.

That bill required West Virginians to bring some form of identification with them when they go to cast a ballot at their polling place. It also set up an automatic voter registration process between the Secretary of the State’s office and the Division of Motor Vehicles.

Delegates initially intended to gut parts of that law altogether this year, but have since worked on a compromise.

As introduced, House Bill 2781 got rid of the automatic voter registration system altogether and removed a large number of the allowable forms of ID, including a health insurance card, birth certificate, and several others. Those two provisions were pushed by Democratic members of the Legislature during the 2016 session.

Thursday morning, a House Judiciary subcommittee, led by Republican Delegate Mark Zatezelo of Hancock County, met to negotiate the bill’s provisions. The subcommittee’s version of the bill puts all of the ID options back in, and it also reinstates the required automatic voter registration system.

Zatezelo says, however, their bill pushes back the effective date one full year.

“We want to make sure the DMV is ready for July 1, 2019,” Zatezelo noted, “And so, we will put into this bill [a] proviso that they be ready with their new software by July 1, 2018. That gives them a year to work all the bugs out and do that type of thing; we feel it’s fair.”

Zatezelo also says the bill makes it clear that if someone doesn’t want to register to vote when they go to the DMV, their information won’t automatically be sent to the Secretary of State’s office.

The single Democrat on the Judiciary subcommittee is Delegate Chad Lovejoy of Cabell County. He says he’s very pleased with the compromised version of the bill.

“I think the bill has been greatly enhanced by the work of the subcommittee,” Lovejoy said, “You know, as we approached it, there were two kind of major concerns with bringing it back up. One was changing the IDs, the list of IDs that were negotiated last year as part of the legislation, and the second, were, what could be perceived as attempts to roll back the automatic voter registration.”

Lovejoy says he anticipates wide support from his party when this bill comes to the floor. House Bill 2781 will now go before the full Judiciary committee for further consideration.

Early Voting for West Virginia Primary Starts Wednesday

West Virginia voters can begin heading to the polls this week to cast votes ahead of the May 10 primary election.

Early voting begins Wednesday and runs through May 7. Polls will be open on Saturdays.

According to the Secretary of State’s website, there are 1.22 million registered voters in the state, with 47 percent registered as Democrats, about 30 percent registered as Republicans and 20 percent with no party affiliation.

W.Va. House Amends Voter ID Bill

The House of Delegates will vote on a contentious piece of legislation Friday; a bill that would require West Virginians to show a form of identification at their polling place. But on Thursday, the bill saw a change on the floor.

House Bill 4013, the voter ID bill, would require West Virginia voters to show a photo ID or some kind of other official documentation to prove their identity before voting at the polls. A voter without proper documentation will be allowed to vote on a provisional ballot.

Supporters of the bill say it will help avoid voter fraud and make vote counting more reliable. But those opposed say it will keep people from the polls, bringing in another step to the voting process and possibly increase wait times.

Democrats proposed three amendments Thursday, but only one of them passed. That amendment was suggested by Delegate Mike Pushkin from Kanawha County.

His amendment allows someone over the age of 70 to renew their license at the DMV with a religious family heirloom to show proof of birth.

Republican Delegate Patrick Lane of Kanawha County is the lead sponsor of the bill, and he says Pushkin’s amendment is good, because the DMV currently has a policy that allows people to bring in a family Bible as proof of birth.

“Delegate Pushkin’s concern, I think, was that Bible is a specific religious document, it identifies as specific religion, and there are obviously are provisions in our West Virginia State Constitution that prohibit recognizing a particular religion, and so his language provides a general religious document exception to that,” Lane said.

The voter ID bill will be up for a final vote in the House Friday.