MORGANTOWN – Just over 31% of Morgantown’s early voters cast their ballots on the final day.
All told, just over 5% of the city’s registered voters took advantage of early voting.
With 224 ballots cast Saturday, turnout for the eight-day early voting period ended at 716, which is ahead of the pace in terms of daily turnout for recent elections.
Spread across eight days, this election’s early turnout equates to 89.5 ballots cast each day.
While this year’s total is actually one vote less than in 2023 (717), those numbers are a little deceiving.
The city conducted 10 days of early voting in 2023, meaning an average of 71.7 voters cast ballots each day.
However, state law mandates cities can only conduct early voting during regular business hours starting 13 days prior and ending three days prior to Election Day.
As Morgantown hasn’t conducted business on Fridays since moving to a four-day work week in July 2020, early voting cannot be held on Friday — thus the return to an eight-day voting period.
Early voting numbers for the three previous elections include:
2019 — A total of 710 ballots were cast across 10 days of early voting (71/daily average). All seven wards were up for election. There were four contested races – 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 6th. The 3rd Ward race was between three write-in candidates
2021 — The first election conducted after the city’s move to a four-day workweek, a total of 567 ballots were cast across eight days of voting (70.8/daily average). This was the last election in which all seven ward seats were in question as a ballot initiative to lengthen council terms to four years and stagger elections was on the ballot and supported by voters. There were three contested races: 3rd, 5th and 7th. The 3rd Ward race was between two write-in candidates.
2023 — Inexplicably, the city moved back to 10 days of early voting in 2023 and saw 717 votes cast, or 71.7 ballots per day. This was the first election not to involve all seven wards. There were contested races in the 5th and 7th wards and a late withdrawal that left two names on the ballot but only one actual candidate in the 1st Ward. The 3rd Ward was unopposed.
