PARKERSBURG — Some voting precincts in Wood County will have to change locations due to availability issues because of the pandemic, the county clerk said Monday.

Wood County Clerk Mark Rhodes appeared before the Wood County Commission to discuss election preparations.

The precincts at West Virginia University at Parkersburg will be have to move due to school officials wanting to limit access to buildings to students who have in-person class work.

“I am going to move those two precincts to Kanawha School,” he said. “It is just up the road a little bit and it is still in the neighborhood. We will have four precincts in there and separated out.”

Another concern involves early voting sites, Rhodes said. Satellite sites are open the week before the election in Mineral Wells, Lubeck, Williamstown and Vienna for early voting.

Rhodes said he was informed the county would be unable to use the Mineral Wells and Lubeck volunteer fire departments.

“I’ve got a couple of phone calls out now about moving to some different locations in those areas,” he said.

His office got approval Monday to use Grace Gospel Church in Pettyville for the Mineral Wells site.

They are looking at the possibility of using the old Blennerhassett VFD building since the department recently moved into a new building. The building was being sold and Rhodes said he would contact any new owner to see if it could be used for early voting.

Rhodes said officials had concerns with people coming in during the pandemic.

Satellite sites are traditionally used five days prior to the election. Five days is the minimum these sites can be used and the maximum is 10 days, he said.

The county is looking at opening the satellite sites for the full 10 days to better space people out, Rhodes said. The Judge Black Annex in downtown Parkersburg has been open the full 10 days before the election.

“We want to see if we can keep the crowds down and use those for the full 10 days, the same as the Judge Black Annex,” Rhodes said. “We want spread out the voters a little bit more so instead of people trying to get in there in five days, they can have a little more time and we can keep traffic down a little bit more.”

Commission President Blair Couch, who serves on the board of the Mid-Ohio Valley Health Department, said cases have been popping up around the area in schools, first-responders and the Parkersburg Correctional Center where more testing will be done.

He said in each instance there have been one or two people test positive and more testing is done while those infected are isolating themselves and those around them are being advised to take precautions.

Wood County as of Monday was green on the state color-coded map for schools with three or fewer cases per 100,000 people, Couch said. The Department of Health and Human Resources reports Wood County has 347 cases as of Monday.

Rhodes has already gotten permission to use the Waverly and Deerwalk VFD buildings on Election Day.

He has reached out to some churches, but some have pre-school going underway and do not want to open facilities to a lot of people over an extended time for early voting.

Rhodes said he is planning to call the Washington Lions Club and others to see if the county might be able to use their facilities as they are both close to present locations and near their respective population centers.

Last Friday was the first day the clerk’s office could mail absentee ballots to those who applied for them and were approved.

They mailed 4,107 absentee ballots on Friday, Rhodes said, adding they were going to mail around 60 on Monday and that is looking how the daily average is shaping up.

During the primary, on the first day absentee ballots could be mailed, the clerk’s office mailed around 1,800 and around 100 or so a day. Closer to the primary election, the county saw an increase in people applying for and their office mailed more absentee ballots.

By the end around 10,600 absentee ballots were mailed for the primary.

“I think we are going to be about the same,” Rhodes said.

The deadline to register to vote is Oct. 13, also the last day to change party affiliations and change addresses if the voter has moved.

“If you do not change your address, you will be told to still go to the correct poll and vote a provisional ballot there and we will make the address correction during the canvassing process and count your ballot then.”

Rhodes said they are seeing a lot of interest from people wanting to register to vote from online inquiries. They had 94 over the weekend and around 10-15 a day, including people needing to make address changes and party changes as well as people checking to see if they are still registered to vote.

Since the prosecutor told them last week that the law does not allow for the use of a dropbox for people to drop off their absentee ballots, Rhodes said the issue hasn’t been discussed.

Officials are looking to see if the governor could issue an executive order that would allow for the use of dropboxes for this election.

Brett Dunlap can be reached at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com