Primary Election Story Archives - Page 8 of 9 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Early Voting Starts Wednesday For W.Va. Primary Election

All of West Virginia's 55 counties offer early voting for this year's primary election. Early voting starts Wednesday and continues through May 7.

All of West Virginia’s 55 counties offer early voting for this year’s primary election, which is being held May 10.

Early voting starts Wednesday and continues through May 7, including the last two Saturdays before the primary, Secretary of State Mac Warner’s office said. Voters may cast an early ballot at the county courthouse, an annex or a designated voting location during normal business hours. On Saturdays, voting will be from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

West Virginia’s primary is semi-open, meaning voters who aren’t affiliated with a recognized political party may participate in the primary of the party of their choice. Unaffiliated voters must ask poll workers for the specific party’s ballot they desire, Warner’s office said.

More information about in-person and absentee voting and a list of early voting sites are available online at GoVoteWV.com. Voters can also check registration at the site.

Voter Registration Deadline Is April 19

The deadline to register to vote, or update a current voter registration, for the upcoming May 10 Primary Election is April 19.

Voters who have moved to a different address, changed their name, or wish to change their political party should update their registration.

Eligible citizens can register to vote in one of three ways:

Online atGoVoteWV.com using a valid West Virginia driver’s license or state-issued ID number;
Mailing a paper application to their county clerk (application form available atGoVoteWV.com or calling their county clerk to have one provided); or
In-person registration including at the public offices of the county clerk, Secretary of State, Division of Motor Vehicles, public assistance offices, agencies serving people with disabilities, and military recruiting agencies.

Mailed registrations must be received or postmarked by no later than April 19.
For those who wish to register in person, check the local office’s business hours. Those registering online must register by the close of business of their county clerk’s office.

Voters can find their voting districts and polling places for the May 10 Primary Election by using the address lookup tool on the WV Interactive Map for Voting Precincts & Districts atGoVoteWV.com.

Registration Deadline Passes For Candidates In 2022 Primary Election

The deadline to file candidacy papers in West Virginia’s May 10 Primary Election passed at midnight on Jan. 29.

A total of 491 people registered with the Secretary of State’s office for elections to the House of Delegates, the state senate races, judicial races and the two seats in Congress. Another 1782 people registered with County Clerks for county level races and seats on the party executive committees. That accounts for a total 2261 candidates.

It is possible the final number may change slightly. Candidates who mailed their registration forms may still be eligible if those forms are postmarked by Jan. 29. Candidates may also choose to withdraw their names before the ballots are prepared.

Registration is slightly lower than in 2018 — the comparable non-presidential election. In that election there were 2480 candidates. A total of 13 candidates, including the three incumbents, filed for the two seats in Congress. Secretary of State Mac Warner said he thought there were several reasons for that level of interest.

“One is that we lost a congressional seat. So there’s really no true incumbent,” Warner said. “We actually have three significant incumbents that have been there before. I guess some folks are looking at it as an open seat. That may have drawn some folks in.”

The next deadline in the election cycle is March 25, when county clerks will begin sending out absentee ballots. Warner cautions that voters will need to have an excuse to receive an absentee ballot, according to state law.

“If you want an absentee ballot, you have to apply for it,” Warner said. “And you have to have a reason for it. The 2018 election is the best analogy prior to COVID. The legislature changes the laws, we’re still operating under that you have to have a reason or an excuse. It has to be one of those on the ballot application.”

Those reasons include:

Illness, injury or other medical reason (includes confinement due to COVID-19)
Disability or advanced age
Incarceration or home detention (does not include individuals convicted of any felony, treason, or election bribery)
Work hours and distance from county seat
Inaccessible early voting site and polling place
Personal or business travel
Attendance at college or other place of education or training
Temporary residence outside of the county
Service as an elected or appointed state or federal official

Changes in the 2020 election that made it easier for everyone to request an absentee ballot were temporary based on Gov. Jim Justice’s stay at home order because of the coronavirus pandemic. Since that order has been lifted, absentee ballots revert back to state election law. Any changes to that process would have to come through the legislature.

Warner said the next key date is April 19. That’s the last date you can register to vote, or change or update your registration or change parties.

Teens who will turn 18 before the General Election on Nov. 9 can register to vote by April 19 and can vote in the Primary Election.

Warner: Jan. 29 Last Day To File for Elected Office

The period to file to run in the 2022 Primary Election is half over — it ends on Jan. 29th. To find out how things are going so far, Eric Douglas spoke with Secretary of State Mac Warner about his role overseeing the state’s elections.

The West Virginia Primary Election will be held on May 10, 2022. The last day to register to vote is April 29, 2022.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Douglas: We’re literally right at the middle of the candidate filing period for the primary election. Let’s go through the numbers real fast first. How many candidates have filed?

Warner: Up to the last hour, we had 662 total filings. Those are for the statewide races and House of Delegates and that sort of thing. In these off year elections, you have a lot of the state executive committees, party challenges that are on the ballot. We’ve had 467 of those.

Douglas: For the actual elected official races, you’re just shy of 200 candidates for the various leadership roles.

Warner: Just to put it in context, that’s about what we had at this stage four years ago in 2018. You want to compare this to off year elections versus elections when there are presidential races, governor and so forth. So we’re about on track with where we were four years ago.

Douglas: Any surprises popping out to you?

Warner: Not really. What we have is a lot of moving parts this election. I’m saying that because the 2020 census was just done. We all know that West Virginia lost some population. We went from three congressional districts to two. So there is some movement of lines and districts. And then the state legislature, a couple years ago, directed that we go with single member districts in the House of Delegates. So we went from 67 districts that used to have three and up to five members to now single member districts. So we have 100 delegates and there are 100 districts.

The message here to candidates is to make sure that you are living in the proper district. That is incumbent upon the candidate themselves. We’ll do the best we can, but the requirements are that they know which district they live in.

With the adjustment in the populations due to the census, the county clerks have been very busy. And they will be sending out notifications to people if your precinct changed. The bottom line is, as we get closer, everybody needs to be paying attention.

Douglas: Just to be clear on one thing, candidates have to live in the district for a year prior to the general election, right?

Warner: That’s correct.

Douglas: Back to the numbers for a second? How many candidates do you normally end up seeing in the course of an election for a primary election?

Warner: Again, going back to 2018, we had 2480 total filings. That included all of those party races that we talked about before. About 500 candidates are at the state level, House of Delegates, Senate.

Douglas: Do you normally see a big push, like the last day or so?

Warner: There is not necessarily a big push, but you have these late filers who are watching to see who else is running; are they self funded, or are they incumbents and that sort of thing. And if no one’s filed, and obviously that last day it does generate interest, and then some people are deciding to run for the House or the Senate. That’s why we have our offices open here in Charleston, in Clarksburg and in Martinsburg until midnight, on Saturday, January 29. Somebody can come in at the very last minute to file for office. If you’re going to file by mail, it has to be postmarked by January 29.

Douglas: We’re about five months from the Primary Election. What do West Virginia voters need to know?

Warner: A couple things. First, make sure that your registration is correct, your address is correct. That’s the way the county clerk lets you know which precinct you’re voting in and where your polling place location is. That sort of thing. Everybody can go to the website, GoVoteWV.com. It’s a simple couple of clicks.

The second thing is, the 2020 elections were irregular. COVID-19, the executive order by the governor to stay home, we moved the election, sent out absentee applications. We’re going back to what the normal course of businesses was in the state code to run elections. Don’t just assume because it was done once it’s going to be done the same the next time around. We are an excuse-based absentee voting state. That means you have to have a reason to vote absentee. And you have to fit a very clearly defined reason. So one of the reasons might be you’ve gotten COVID. And you need to stay home for medical reasons that would fit that medical excuse, but it’s not the blanket excuse that we had in 2020.

Douglas: Is there anything else that we haven’t talked about that you want to add?

Warner: Nationwide, there’s a large voting bill that’s being considered and the county clerks have been almost unanimous across the state; 54 of the 55 county clerks have voiced their opinion that it is not healthy for West Virginia. If anybody has questions about that, talk with your local county clerk. I’d be glad to discuss it as well. West Virginia has been recognized across the nation as setting a standard for clean, fair elections. I’ve been asked to testify in front of Congress twice and explained what West Virginia’s doing and how we did it so well. It began with the cleaning up of the voter registration lists. People have confidence in the West Virginia elections. And we had record setting turnout, the highest since 1960. In the last 2020 elections, over 802,000 people voted, and we had about 1.1 million registered voters. So a very high turnout.

We implemented a new procedure called “See Something, Text Something.” If someone’s intimidating you, somebody is trying to buy a vote or do anything nefarious, take a picture of it, send it to us, text it to us, let us know. We have investigators across the state, we are working with the US Attorney’s Office, the Attorney General’s Office, we have our own investigators, we’ll be glad to put somebody on it to investigate.

We take voting improprieties very seriously, we will investigate and we will prosecute. And let’s just nip it in the bud before anybody has any ideas of doing something improper.

'It's Never Been Just About Me:' Tina Russell First Black Woman To Win Democratic Primary In Mercer

The results were in on Monday, June 15 – Tina Russell of Glenwood, Mercer County, is the first black woman in West Virginia history to win a Democratic primary in her district.

Russell, who won her primary uncontested, is a U.S. Army veteran, a substitute teacher and a long-time social worker who says she has helped clients dealing with addiction, socioeconomic inequality and new foster care parents.

Russell sat down with West Virginia Public Broadcasting over the phone to discuss her campaign going forward.

***Editor’s Note: The following has been lightly edited for clarity.

Emily Allen: Can you kind of tell me a bit about yourself? Are you a lifelong West Virginian? Where did you grow up?

Tina Russell: I actually grew up in Beckley. I lived in Beckley as a child and I went to Woodrow Wilson High School, and I lived in Beckley 20 years – well, no, I take that back, 19 years.

When I initially finished high school, I went into the United States Army. I served a tour in Desert Storm, but I also served in the Army Reserve unit, so I was also able to go to college while I was serving.

I was attending Concord College when I was about 19. When I went to school there in Athens, in Mercer County, I pretty much never left. I just decided that was where I wanted to live.

Allen: What encouraged you to run for office?

Russell: What had happened is, I had noticed a lot of activity on my social media platforms about a delegate in our district. He had made some pretty concerning comments about the LGBTQ+ community, and he had also made some pretty concerning votes to it, related to public education.

I just felt like from all my years – and I have lived in Mercer County for 25 years – that type of talk didn’t represent the people I knew here, and my neighbors. I just felt like it was very important that somebody have a counter argument to him.

So, I decided to run initially for that reason, but that’s not the only reason. I had already been helping other candidates, you know, by door knocking and making phone calls before I decided to run. I felt like I could make more of an impact if I ran myself, because I pretty much dedicated the last 25 years of my life to public service anyway, in the military, as a social worker, as a teacher. So why not do public service in a way that they can make an impact with my vote through the West Virginia legislature?

Allen: You’re talking about Eric Porterfield. Something that kind of created big headlines last week was his loss in the Republican primary. What were you feeling when you saw that? What do you think that loss meant to your community and in Mercer County, in that district?

Russell: Well, I think to be just completely honest, behavior has consequences. Even though a person is entitled to freedom of speech, they’re not entitled to freedom of consequences for that speech.

Behavior has consequences. The people of Mercer County have spoken, and it doesn’t represent their values, or he’d still be there.

Allen: You are the first black woman to win a Democratic primary in Mercer County. Why do you think it’s taken this long to have that sort of thing happen in Mercer County?

Russell: You know, I really don’t know the answer to that. Actually, believe it or not, as far as per capita, we have actually one of the most concentrated minority populations in the state of West Virginia, in Bluefield.

So, we’ve had people of color, men and women, win city council seats and other seats. … I think people kind of get at a place where they don’t think things will change. They don’t think it’ll make a difference if they run. And I think it takes one person to kind of say, ‘Hey, let’s try. We don’t know until we try.’

My hope is that me running will encourage other people to run. That’s my goal. It’s never been just about me, it’s about encouraging other people to step out there and say, you know, we all benefit from a diverse community. We benefit from other cultures and learning things that can help us to get along better. And that’s important in local offices, too.

So, I’m hoping if nothing else, this will encourage other people – other black people, I’ll just be frank – to run for office.

Allen: Your win comes at a time when people all over the country and all over the state are protesting violence and discrimination against the black community by law enforcement.

Just a few weeks ago there were protests in Princeton and Bluefield. What have you heard on this topic from voters when you’re out and about? And, as a candidate for state house, what do you think the state should do about the topic?

Russell: I think it’s time to have a hard conversation. We accomplish nothing by being separate. We need to be at each other’s dinner tables. Our kids need to play together. We need to be at each other’s barbecues. We need to be at each other’s churches, having conversations. As long as we’re separate, we’re not going to be able to truly understand or empathize with where the other person is coming from.

In my opinion, I need to have more conversations with people who don’t agree with me, who maybe don’t understand me, who may be a little bit afraid of me. They may have misconceptions about me based on race. Whether that’s uncomfortable or not, we have to talk about it or it’s not going to change.

Allen: Have you come across a lot of misunderstanding or misconceptions on the campaign trail, like that?

Russell: Not as much as you would think. Very few. Every once in a while, I’ll get a comment, like, I had someone say to me once, ‘You’re more articulate than I thought you would be.’

I think you kind of know where I’m going with this. I call it a backhanded compliment.

And I challenged him in a polite way. I said, ‘Is there a reason why you thought I wouldn’t be articulate?’ And he just kind of looked at me and said, ‘Well, no.’

I said, ‘You know, I went to college and everything. I learned a thing or two.’ And we just kind of talked about other things after that. But I think sometimes it’s just stereotypes, misunderstandings.

Allen: Something that was really big were the protests that were happening for the education omnibus bill [in 2019]. And you have experience as an educator…

Russell: And I did participate in the teacher’s strikes. I was very involved in that. I would go down to the Capitol, and I was there when we were fighting for the 5 percent raise.

We tell everybody it was not just about that. It was about PEIA, it was about more supportive services and mental health services in schools for kids, more social services – there was a lot of stuff we wanted. It was never just about money. It was about what’s best for our students, but what’s best to help us best provide for our students, as well.

If teachers are paid a living wage, and they get cost-of-living raises, they’re better to care for themselves, which means they’re going to be better at caring for their students.

Allen: What are some issues that you’re hearing that are important to voters and the community, that maybe the rest of West Virginia isn’t aware of?

Russell: I don’t think we’re really a lot different than the rest of the state. But I think one of the big concerns about the southern part of the state is we kind of feel like we’re last on the totem pole sometimes, as far as getting access to certain things. Like, road repair. We feel like a lot of times the northern part of the state will get those things before we do. And that’s a big concern here.

Russell is the only Democrat running for one of three seats in District 27, encompassing Mercer County and part of Raleigh County.

Emily Allen is a Report for America corps member.

With Coronavirus Peak Looming, West Virginia Delays Primary Election Until June 9

With cases of the coronavirus expected to spike in West Virginia in the coming weeks, the state will delay its primary election. Gov. Jim Justice made the…

With cases of the coronavirus expected to spike in West Virginia in the coming weeks, the state will delay its primary election. Gov. Jim Justice made the announcement at a Wednesday virtual news conference.

The primary election had been scheduled for May 12. But with public health concerns heightened, Justice announced the primary will instead be pushed back to June 9.

Projections from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation show the coronavirus’ impact on West Virginia will peak at the beginning of May.

“All of you know that I was absolutely hopeful and very supportive of trying to do our election on May 12. I felt like that we could do it,” Justice said. “But as we continue to go and as we continue to get closer and closer. It’s ever so apparent that that’s just absolutely the wrong thing to do.”

Justice acknowledged that the state is expected to see an uptick in coronavirus cases in the coming weeks. He also alluded to research that shows West Virginia could be struck particularly hard when the virus arrives here in force. Data has shown West Virginia is about two weeks behind the rest of the country.

“We’ve got to know we’re the most exposed state, the highest risk state — and there’s no question moving this date is the right thing to do,” Justice said.

The Secretary of State’s office announced last week that all 1.2 million of West Virginia’s registered voters would be sent an application for an absentee ballot. Election officials said voters could use the pandemic as a reason to vote absentee.

Justice and Secretary of State Mac Warner both said Wednesday that the absentee ballot initiative will remain in place. They said early voting dates will also be adjusted based on the new date for election day.

“We’re going to move the dates up on a proportionate basis and all that, you know, in the correct format in every way,” Justice said.

Warner said his office has been preparing county clerks for the possibility of pushing back the date of the primary.

“We’ve been in contact with them constantly this week. I was on the phone with them this morning. I’ll be on the phone with them again this afternoon,” Warner said. “And the real shout out goes to them. They have raised the questions appropriately about the election [and] how we’re going to execute this.”

State Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said the governor has the legal authority to move the election, given the state of emergency and the threat at hand.

“The governor’s declaration is really focused on protecting the health and safety of citizens and also the workers — because he’s trying to limit their exposure to the virus and that’s based upon the best medical information that’s available,” Morrisey said. “The governor does have the emergency powers to move this election date because he’s trying to protect the public health.”

While the primary election cycle has been in full swing for months, more than a dozen states have pushed back their elections as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.