PARKERSBURG – The county’s community early voting sites will be opening today and running through the rest of the week and voters are being reminded that the Republican primary election is now only open to registered Republican voters.

Wood County Clerk Joe Gonzales told the Wood County Commission on Monday the Community voting sites will be open from today to Saturday, May 9, at the Lubeck Volunteer Fire Department,1349 Harris Highway; the Mineral Wells Volunteer Fire Department, 1695 Elizabeth Pike; the Vienna Community Building, 1301 34th St., Vienna; and the Williamstown City Building, 100 West 5th St.

Hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily through Friday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday.

Early voting will continue at the Judge Black Annex on Market Street across from the Blennerhassett Hotel through this Saturday.

Primary Election Day will be held Tuesday, May 12 where people will report to their assigned voting precincts around the area to vote from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Since early voting started last Wednesday, the county had 963 people come in to cast a ballot in Wood County which Gonzales said is down from previous years.

“We are hoping that increases,” he said. “We are encouraging everyone to get out and vote.

“It is an important time for our county, our state and our country. We encourage people to do their research on all the candidates and come out and vote for the person you think can lead our county, our state and our country.”

All 55 counties have at least one early voting polling location, according to West Virginia Secretary of State Kris Warner in a press release issued by his office.

Warner said that county clerks are reporting that 4,858 voters statewide cast a ballot in-person on the first day of early voting. There have been 1,812 absentee ballots returned to the state’s county clerks as of Thursday morning, April 30, according to the press release.

Wood County has 55,481 registered voters. Of those, 26,401 are Republican, 12,175 are Democrat and 16,905 are non-partisan.

Gonzales reminds people that the Republican primary is only open to registered Republican voters.

Officials have said there have been some people who came in to early voting who are not registered Republicans, but asking to vote a Republican ballot because they had in the past. The state Republican Executive Committee voted in 2024 to close the Republican primary to non-Republican voters. This will be the first election with this in effect.

“We have only had a few ask who did not see (the news coverage on that),” Gonzales said.

Non-partisan races, like Board of Education and levies, will still appear on the Republican, Democratic and no-party ballots.

“If people did not register as a Republican, they will get a Democratic or no party ballot,” Gonzales said. “If you are not a registered Republican, you will not be able to vote for Republican candidates.”

If people come in and demand to vote a Republican ballot, the clerk’s office can issue the voter one but it will be a provisional ballot that will be set aside and reviewed by the county commission during the canvassing process on Monday, May 18 to be determined if it counts or not.

“If they are not registered as a Republican, I am sure the commission will not count that,” Gonzales said. “We always allow everyone to vote, but in this instance it would be a provisional which will probably be tossed out by the commission during canvassing.”

Voters must also present a photo ID like a driver’s license, passport or a state identification card when they come to vote.

Sample ballots for all 1,684 precincts can be found online at GoVoteWV.com, the release from the Secretary of State’s Office said. Printed sample ballots are also available at the office of the county clerk, it added.

Any registered Wood County voter may vote at any early voting site in the county.

If voting on Primary Election Day, May 12, people will have to go to their assigned precinct.

If people have questions about where their precinct is, they can call the Wood County Clerk’s Voters Office at 304-424-1860.

Contact Brett Dunlap at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com