Election Day Running Smoothly in West Virginia, and You Still Have Until 7:30 to Vote

If you haven't made it to your polling place yet today, there's still time, and so far, the lines are moving. Election Day in West Virginia has been running smoothly from one end of the state to the other, according to Secretary of State Kris Warner, after an early voting stretch that blew past the last midterm.

Polls are open until 7:30 p.m. tonight, and anyone who is in line by 7:30 p.m. is guaranteed the chance to cast a ballot. So if you're getting off work late or still have to pick the kids up, don't give up on it. Get in line.

Smooth going in all 55 counties

Warner said election operations have gone smoothly across all 55 counties. More than 8,200 trained poll workers are staffing precincts around the state, and counties have enough paper ballots on hand to handle the busiest stretches of the day.

By midday, the Secretary of State's election fraud hotline had taken 53 calls. Warner described most of them as minor complaints that could be resolved, such as electioneering too close to polling place entrances.

Early voting jumped about 24 percent

West Virginians came out early this year in a big way. County clerks reported 162,349 voters cast ballots during the early voting period from Oct. 21 through Oct. 31, about 24 percent more than the 131,404 early votes in the 2022 midterm. Unofficial numbers show Republican early turnout up 28 percent, Democratic early turnout up 19 percent and unaffiliated early turnout up 31 percent compared with 2022.

Warner credited strong civic outreach, clear weather during the early voting window and the everyday kitchen-table concerns folks are weighing this year. Mail-in absentee ballots, on the other hand, dropped by roughly 46 percent from 2022, which Warner said makes sense now that the COVID-era medical excuses that boosted absentee voting four years ago have faded. West Virginia requires an excuse to vote absentee, so most people vote in person.

How big could turnout get?

About 14 percent of the state's roughly 1.2 million registered voters had already voted before today. Warner held off on predicting a final number, but he noted that turnout in non-presidential years has typically landed somewhere between 38 and 48 percent.

What's on the ballot

Voters are choosing a U.S. senator, both of West Virginia's members of Congress, all 100 seats in the House of Delegates and 19 seats in the state Senate. There's also Amendment 1, a proposed change to the state constitution about citizenship and voting.

Results will start coming in after the polls close tonight, and we'll be keeping an eye on them right alongside you. Until then, if you haven't voted yet, grab your neighbor and go. Here in the Mountain State, showing up is what we do.