Voters to settle races Tuesday

By PAMELA BRUST, pbrust@newsandsentinel.com


PARKERSBURG — While many will be watching West Virginia’s primary Tuesday for the outcome of the Democratic presidential race, Wood County voters will also be deciding nominees for a number of county, state and city elections as well as voting on a bus levy for the cities of Parkersburg and Vienna and electing Wood County Board of Education candidates.

Wood County Clerk Jamie Six is predicting a 45 to 50 percent turnout on election day. There are a total of 52,334 voters registered in Wood County. That figure includes 21,928 Democrats, 21,590 Republicans, and 8,495 unaffiliated, with the remainder registered in various other parties.

Those candidates nominated in the primary will appear on the ballot for the November general election.

“The turnout prediction is just a guess. We’ve had a much lower turnout than we expected for the early vote so we are anticipating long lines on election day. Since a fewer number of voters turned out than we had anticipated for the early vote, that indicates two things to me; either people aren’t as interested in the primary as we thought they were going to be, or they are just waiting until the last minute to decide and they are going to vote on election day,” Six said.

The nonpartisan BOE candidates are elected in the primary. Williamstown voters will also be making a final decision on their mayor and two council positions in the primary.

This election will mark two firsts as well. This will be the first presidential primary for Wood County’s new touchscreen voting equipment, and the first time Independents can request either a Democrat or Republican ballot to vote in the primary. Six said he doesn’t anticipate any problems with the new procedure.

“We’ve covered this with our pollworkers during their training so I’m confident they will be up to speed on the new change,” he said.

Voters are reminded if they want to change their address at the polls, they need to go to their new precinct to vote.

“We will have staff on duty throughout election day, so if they need to call us and find out where their new polling place will be, we can look that up for them. They will still vote a provisional (challenged) ballot, but if they go to their new precinct, their vote would be counted during the canvass, once their address information is confirmed,” Six said.

The clerk explained this is necessary because there are different ballot types depending on where you live.

In the board of education race, voters can elect two board members.

“But only one from District A and one from District B. There is only one candidate running in District A, so he is all but elected, so the race comes down to one of the candidates from District B being the second one,” Six said.

John Marlow is running from District A. The three candidates running from District B are Larry Godfrey, Tim Yeater and Amy Jo Cokeley.

Six said he doesn’t anticipate any problems with the electronic voting equipment.

“There is one thing we found to be helpful for people who haven’t used the machines before. We remind them they will see the candidates’ names twice, once while they are making a selection, then a second time during the review process. If there is a problem or question, the voter should get the attention of one of the pollworkers. If necessary, the voter can request the pollworker provide assistance,” Six said.

After recent improvements, 11 more of the county’s 85 voting precinct will be brought up to the Americans With Disabilities Act standards, however, that still leaves 22 precincts that are not handicapped accessible. Anyone who has a disability and is unable to get into their respective polling place, can contact Six’s office at 424-1860 to make arrangements to vote at another ADA-compliant precinct, or they can “auto vote.”

“We can now bring a paper ballot out to their car to allow them to vote under the new procedure, but there may be a wait, with the anticipated turnout, and the pollworkers have to make sure everyone in the precinct at the time is taken care of before they can take the ballot out,” Six said.

Poll hours will be 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.