Marion County early voting up 11% from this time in 2022
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FAIRMONT - Democracy arrived mostly in twos and threes at the J. Harper Building in Fairmont on Friday morning.
That was the general grouping of people turning out to mark their ballots ahead of Tuesday's national midterm election - which Marion County Clerk Julie Kincaid said she appreciated seeing.
"It's nice to see the participation," said the official who oversees voting and elections here. "It's nice to see that people want to come out and make a difference."
Early voting wrapped Saturday in Marion and elsewhere. Polls open at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday for Election Day.
Based on the numbers so far, early voting in Marion County and the Mountain State was running a little more exuberant than midterm elections of past years.
As of Thursday, 4,230 people in the county had voted early, Kincaid said.
That's 11% higher in the county over this same point in the midterms of 2022, the county clerk noted - and "pretty good," she said, for Marion's 39,000 or so registered voters.
And reflective of the turnout across all of West Virginia's 55 counties, Secretary of State Kris Warner said.
When early voting polls closed Thursday, Warner reported that 109,902 people by then had weighed on everything from senate to city council - with absentee ballots rising the statewide total to 115,855.
Call that 30% higher statewide at this point than in the midterms of 2022, Warner said.
The quest for accessibility and ease were easy votes, he said, as clerks such as Kincaid worked through election protocols.
"All 55 counties have at least one early voting polling location making it convenient for voters to cast ballots on their schedule," the secretary said. "I encourage all registered voters to take advantage of early voting."
Besides, Kincaid said, Tuesday's midterms mean the 2028 general election is now that much closer.
Which means early voting - and electronic voting machines - will again factor in, she said.
Kincaid on Friday gave her vote for the machines.
"I want people to have the same confidence that I do," she said.
"I want them to understand that inside those machines, there's no memory card - no anything. They're simply a ballot-marking device."
Meanwhile, a total of 9,163 Monongalia voters had cast early ballots as of the end of the day Wednesday, County Clerk Carye Blaney reported. That’s 13% over the total at this same time in the 2022 midterms.