MORGANTOWN — Five ballots – four late-arriving absentee and one provisional – were added to the Morgantown Municipal Election vote totals Monday as a quorum of Morgantown City Council sat as the city’s canvassing body.
The additional ballots appeared to bump the total number of votes cast in the city’s election from 1,900 to 1,905, or 14.13% of the city’s 13,480 registered voters. This number is based off the 1,900 ballots the city said had been cast as of Election Day, plus the four added Monday.
The city put out a press release Tuesday explaining the election turnout was actually 1,924 (14.27%) as none of the 23 total absentee ballots cast in the election were included in the Election Day numbers provided to the press, despite the city’s election dashboard indicating the data included 100% of absentee and early voting ballots.
While roughly 86% of the city’s voters opted not to participate, the turnout still registers as the third-highest in the last 10 municipal elections by percentage, and fourth-highest by number of votes cast.
In 2011, 3,699 of 16,621, or 22.25%, of the city’s voters cast ballots. In 2017, 15.07%, or 2,724 of 18,076 registered voters made it to the polls. In 2013, 2,094 people voted, which was 12.60% of the 16,622 registered voters on the rolls at the time.
Mayor Joe Abu-Ghannam and councilors Bill Kawecki, Louise Michael and Danielle Trumble sat for the canvassing process, which took just under two hours.
All told, the body checked eight provisional ballots – meaning that due to some irregularities flagged on Election Day, the ballots were cast but not counted until reviewed by the canvassing board.
Of the eight, one was counted. Six were rejected due to the voter being registered in a precinct outside the city, and one was rejected because the voter was not registered to vote, according to the secretary of state’s office.
Additionally, the canvassing process includes hand-checking every ballot from one precinct. In this case, 158 ballots cast in Precinct 10 were checked. The results fell within the 1% margin of error.
The canvassing board declared the results at about 1:55 p.m., opening a 48-hour window during which candidates can request a recount before Morgantown City Council certifies the election.
“Everything went well. The canvas was good. We were within the 1% margin of error, which is what the state requires,” City Clerk Christine Wade said. “Overall, I think things went really well. Our poll workers were great, and our folks here today – I just think everything went very well.”
According to the city, the results are:
2nd Ward – Jodi Hollingshead — 1,327
4th Ward – Jenny Selin — 1,228
6th Ward – Mark Downs 1,050; Stephanie Hunt 753
City manager residency charter change – No 1,412; Yes 429
To repeal camping ban – No 986; Yes 905
