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West Virginia sees higher early voting turnout than last midterm election

Three days left for early voting

CHARLESTON — The first six days of early voting in West Virginia this year have already surpassed early voting in the last midterm election.

According to data from the Secretary of State’s Office, 90,821 registered voters have cast ballots in courthouses and designated polling locations across West Virginia – as well absentee ballots – as of Oct. 30.

During the six-day period, West Virginia saw a 37.85 percent increase over 2014 midterm early voting. During that same time period in 2014, 65,883 voters had cast ballots in that midterm election.

Among the major political parties, 33,487 registered Republicans have voted so far, compared to 23,164 registered Republicans at the same point in 2014. That’s an increase of 44.56 percent compared to registered Democratic voter turnout, which stands at 17.21 percent. So far, 40,280 registered Democrats have voted, compared to 34,365 after six days of early voting in 2014.

The Mountain Party is also seeing higher early voting turnout with .08 percent. That’s with 70 Mountain Party voters casing ballots compared to the same time period in 2014, when 44 had voted at that point. The Libertarian Party in 2014 did not have major party status in 2014.

Those numbers are small, however, when compared to the increase in turnout of unaffiliated voters and those categorized as “other,” which includes voters that have listed a party other than one of the four major parties. According to 2014 midterm turnout data, 8,310 voters categorized as unaffiliated or other cast ballots in that election. This year, that number has grown to 16,235 — a 95.37 percent increase.

Voters still have through Saturday to early vote before the Tuesday election. Early voting locations and hours can be found at GoVoteWV.com

While the state still has a majority registered with the Democratic Party, West Virginia has seen a decrease in registered Democrats since the 2016 presidential election, with more voters registering as Republican or unaffiliated/other. Democratic voter registration decreased by 8.97 percent between 2016 and 2018 with 41.91 percent of voters registered as Democrat by the close of voter registration Oct. 16 for the 2018 general election.

Republican voter registration increased by 1.6 percent between 2016 and 2018, with 32.14 percent registered in time for the 2018 general election. But the number of unaffiliated/other voters increased 3.86 percent from 2016, representing a quarter of all registered voters by Oct. 16.

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