W.Va. countdown to May 14 primary begins
Early voting for the May 14 primary is underway at the Judge Black Annex on Market Street through Saturday. (Photo by Terry L. Estep)
CHARLESTON — The Republican and Democratic primaries in West Virginia are just seven days away, with early voting ending Saturday and today being the last day to request absentee ballots. The period for eligible registered voters, military voters, and residents overseas to request an absentee ballot from their local county clerk in person, through the mail, or electronically began Jan 1 and ends today. A complete list of eligibility requirements and the absentee ballot application can be found at GoVoteWV.com. “There is no reason that any registered voter should miss the opportunity to cast a ballot in the upcoming May 14th Primary Election,” said Secretary of State Mac Warner in a statement Tuesday afternoon. “West Virginia offers voters more ways to cast a ballot than any other state in the nation.” West Virginia allows active-duty members of the U.S. military, their spouses and teenagers that are eligible to vote, residents with physical disabilities that prevent them from voting in-person, and certain first responders the ability to cast their absentee ballot electronically. E-voting has been available through the Secretary of State’s Office since 2018 for voters eligible under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voters Act (UOCAVA). The state also allows for requests after today for emergency absentee voting. Voters eligible for an emergency absentee ballot include voters hospitalized on Election Day, replacement poll workers appointed after the early voting period, voters in licensed health care facilities in adjacent counties or within 35 miles of the county seat, voters placed in nursing homes for a period less than 30 days, or voters who become confined to their homes for medical reasons seven days prior to Election Day. The deadline for hand-delivery of absentee ballots to county clerks is Monday, May 13, with electronically submitted absentee ballots due by the close of polls Tuesday, May 14. Wednesday, May 15, is the last day county clerks can accept absentee ballots by mail without postmarks, while the deadline for postmarked absentee ballots is Monday, May 20. The last day for early voting in West Virginia is Saturday, May 11, at 5 p.m. at county courthouses or other designated early voting locations opening at 9 a.m. that day. Independent and unaffiliated voters wishing to vote in either the Republican and Democratic primaries must request a Republican or Democratic ballot, otherwise they will be given a nonpartisan ballot. The deadline for West Virginia residents to register to vote in the May 14 primary or update voter registration information was April 23. According to the Secretary of State’s Office, there are 1.18 million residents registered to vote in the state, down by 3.7% from 1.23 million registered voters prior to the 2020 presidential primary. Republicans continue to grow their voter registration numbers. There are now 477,549 registered Republicans in the state as of the April registration deadline, making up 40.4% of all registered voters. That’s a 13.6% increase from the number of registered Republicans four years ago. The number of registered Republicans first exceeded the number of registered Democratic voters in February 2021. The number of registered Democratic voters as of April was 358,056, making up 30.3% of all registered voters in the state, down by 25% from 477,238 registered Democratic voters four years ago. The number of unaffiliated voters also increased, with 292,963 voters choosing no party registration, making up 24.8% of all registered voters. That’s up by 4.2% from four years ago when there were 281,207 unaffiliated voters. The May primary this year will be the final primary that independent and unaffiliated voters get to vote in the Republican primary after the West Virginia Republican Executive Committee voted in January to close their primaries to unaffiliated voters beginning with the 2026 primaries.