By james art 
More than a quarter of registered voters in West Virginia voted in person in the general election during the early voting period, according to data from the Secretary of State’s office.
According to the data — which includes all ballots cast in person through Saturday, the last day of early voting — more than 310,400 West Virginians voted in the weeks and days leading up to Election Day, which is Tuesday. Early voting data is preliminary and subject to change after results are finalized by county officials and the Secretary of State’s office.
Nearly half of the state’s in-person voters — about 46 percent of them — registered as Republicans. Almost 30% of early in-person votes were from Democrats, and about 19% were from independents.
Monongalia County had the highest early voter turnout rate of all 55 counties in the state, with 37% of registered voters there is voting before election day, the data show. Of those voters, about 39% were Democrats, nearly 37% were Republicans, and 22% were independents.
McDowell County had the lowest turnout in the state for early voting, with only 815 people — about 7 percent of all registered voters in the county — casting ballots before Election Day.
Statewide, 19 counties had more than half of the early in-person votes cast by registered Republicans. Alternatively, the highest voter turnout rate for Democrats was in McDowell County, where nearly 47 percent of early in-person voters registered as Democrats.
The highest turnout for Republicans was in Grant County, where nearly 77 percent of all early in-person voters were registered Republicans. The lowest turnout for Republicans was in McDowell County, where about 27 percent of early voters were Republicans.
For independent voters, turnout rates were highest in Jefferson County, where about 28 percent of in-person early voters were not registered with a party. Pocahontas, Hardee and Morgan counties followed Jefferson, with about 26 percent of their early in-person voting coming from unaffiliated voters, according to the data.
Voting in person
The above early voting figures do not include those who voted by mail with absentee ballots. Only certain people are in West Virginia eligible to vote by mail, including those who are in the military or traveling, first responders unable to vote in person due to emergency calls, and people who have mobility issues or illness, and people incarcerated who have not been convicted of a crime.
According to the secretary of state, about 26,300 absentee ballots were requested for the general election, which equates to just over 2 percent of all registered voters in the state.
To date, 82% of absentee ballots requested have been returned. The last day to return absentee ballots was Monday, meaning the return rate could rise as counties report more to the secretary of state’s office.
Of the ballots returned as of Monday, nearly 44 percent were from Democrats, while 37 percent were from Republicans. Independent voters account for about 15 percent of all absentee ballots returned in the state so far.
Absentee voting has been most prevalent in Calhoun County, according to the data, where nearly 6 percent of registered voters have so far returned absentee ballots to their county clerk.
Groups are open for the general election on Tuesday, November 5 from 6:30am to 7:30pm. To find your polling place, check your registration, view a sample ballot and more, visit https://sos.wv.gov/elections/Pages/GoVoteWV.aspx.
West Virginia Watch will have full coverage of Tuesday’s election. Check out ours A guide for voters in the 2024 general election before you vote to learn more about the candidates and the positions they are running for.
Don’t forget to bookmark and follow ours Decision 2024 page for updates and results on Tuesday and in the following days.
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