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PARKERSBURG - The 2026 General Election went pretty smoothly, said Wood County Clerk Joe Gonzales.
After having people out at the polls throughout the day and tabulating votes Tuesday evening, including counting and tabulating write-in votes, Gonzales said his people were ready and only a few minor problems had to be addressed.
"It went really smooth all day," he said.
In Wood County, there are 55,989 total registered voters and there were 22,935 total ballots cast, according to the unofficial tallies released Tuesday evening.
The equipment was working fine, but there were power issues that occurred in the Lubeck School gymnasium which affected some voting machine operations which ended up causing longer lines for a period of time as they were able to move a couple things around.
"Everyone still got to vote," Gonzales said. "Everything was fine."
There are always "little things" that happen during the day that personnel are trained to deal with, but do not cause any delays.
Gonzales said he did have to put some of his people out in the field as poll workers as they had some people who had to call off due to family emergencies which is a preparation they make for every election. However, the majority of the people who volunteer to be poll workers were in place throughout the day on Tuesday.
"Poll workers are great," Gonzales said. "They do a great job and we are fortunate to have them."
They have 275 poll workers and alternates which was reduced down from 307 poll workers after the county approved the consolidation of a number of voting precinct locations.
"(That consolidation) made a huge difference, combining some of those precincts into a single location," Gonzales said.
Some of the precincts were placed at the new City Park Pavillion which was popular with a lot of people who went there.
"It was easy access and plenty of parking," Gonzales said. "There was easy access to get in and out of.
"I think it worked out really well."
The Wood County Clerk's Office sent out 455 absentee ballots and had received 388 by Election Day.
For overall voter turnout, they had 17% for early voting and 41% percent on Election Day.
They have 96 provisional ballots from Election Day and 12 from the early voting and five provisional ballots from absentee ballots for a total of 113. Those will be reviewed Monday by the Wood County Commission when they meet as the canvassing board to determine which ones will be approved to be counted.
In May, there was a thumb drive that was misplaced, but was found. The Wood County Clerk's Office created a folder for each precinct to hold all the paperwork each poll worker had to return when they reported back to the courthouse, including an envelope for the thumb drive which was required to have the thumb drive placed in it.
"It worked out really well," Gonzales said. "We had no problems and everything went smoothly when the polls closed and they brought everything to the courthouse."
The county maintenance department was out Wednesday, picking up voting machines and personnel will be putting those away.
Personnel were at the Wood County Courthouse until around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday night checking the write-in votes placed for Rio Phillips running for the U.S. Senate and Vernon Criss in the House of Delegates 12th District race. A Republican and Democrat or a Republican and an independent had to visually verify the votes.
Gonzales said he felt good warm weather Tuesday throughout the day allowed people to make it to the polls.
"It really helped get the voters out," he said.