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Early voting begins Wednesday in Wood County

By Brett Dunlap 4 min read

PARKERSBURG -- Early voting in Wood County will start Wednesday at the Judge Black Annex in Parkersburg.

The Wood County Commission conducted an inspection of voting equipment on Monday with Wood County Clerk Joe Gonzales.

Commission President Blair Couch said the voting machines print off a paper ballot that can be looked at by the voter and are stored securely and the voting machines are not connected to the internet.

Gonzales showed officials the ExpressVote machines that will be placed at the Judge Black Annex as well as the DS200s that tabulate the paper ballots that are printed off.

"Everything is set and ready to go Wednesday morning at 8:30 a.m.," Gonzales said.

Early voting for the Nov. 5 general election will begin on Wednesday, Oct. 23, at the Judge Black Annex at 315 Market St. in downtown Parkersburg and will run through Nov. 2, Gonzales said.

The site will be open 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday to Friday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays. There is no Sunday voting in West Virginia, he said.

Community early voting sites will be open Oct. 29 to Nov. 2 at the Williamstown City Building, 100 W. Fifth St., Williamstown; the Vienna Community Building, 1301 34th St., Vienna; the Mineral Wells Volunteer Fire Department, 1695 Elizabeth Pike, Mineral Wells; and the Lubeck Volunteer Fire Department, 1340 Harris Highway, Parkersburg.

All the early voting sites will be open 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays.

People voting early need to bring a valid driver's license or state ID card or a voter registration card, he said, adding first-time voters need to have a photo ID.

Gonzales said they sent out around 700 absentee ballots and have already received around 500 back.

"We still have people requesting them," he said.

The county will take absentee ballot applications through Oct. 30. The applications have to physically be in the county clerk's office by 4:30 p.m. on Oct. 30 to be processed.

People can physically return two absentee ballots to the county's Voter Registration Office on the fourth floor of the Wood County Courthouse by 4:30 p.m. Nov. 4, the day before the election.

Otherwise, absentee ballots have to be postmarked by Election Day to be counted, officials said.

Gonzales said they have backup batteries for the voting machines and those are charged up in case there would be a power problem. He is also in contact with the electric company and can get a hold of them if there is a power issue. The machines have an internal memory so nothing will be lost.

"All of the machines are testing good," Gonzales said, adding they were ready to begin early voting on Wednesday.

There are 300 ExpressVote voting machines and 69 DS200 machines for the county. There will be 16 voting stations set up at Black with one DS200 machine. Gonzales said they could put more voting machines at the Judge Black Annex if needed, but they are going to see what the turnout will look like on the first day and so.

The community sites will have 15-16 voting machines and a DS200 each.

Gonzales said they will have a number of voting machines on reserve, if they are needed.

Gonzales said Roger Bibbee will still appear in the Vienna ballot for city council, even though he recently passed away. If he still wins, someone will be appointed to the seat. The clerk said they will post notices at early voting sites to let people know. There will also be a list available of eligible write-in candidates at the voting sites.

In other business, Katelin Johnson was sworn in as the new Victim's Advocate for the Wood County Prosecutor's Office.

Brett Dunlap can be reached at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com

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