Getting ready for November election, County clerk, staff prepared for early voting beginning Wednesday

Huggins said Preston County has 18,776 registered voters. There are 8,396 registered Republicans; 6,143 Democrats; 72 Libertarians; 27 Mountain Party and 7 Constitutional Party.

“We actually have less registered voters this year as opposed to others,” Huggins said. “There is a purging period where inactive voters are removed from the register. This occurs after checking voters registrations to a national address base. We had a lot of people come off.”

The county has 4,131 independent or no party affiliation voters. These voters include the Constitutional Party which is not a recognized party in West Virginia. The four parties formally recognized by West Virginia are Republican, Democrat, Libertarian and the Mountain Party.

“We had had a lot of people change their party affiliation to independent or no party this year.” Huggins said.

Huggins said one item that is different with the November election is there is no straight ticket voting.

“Prior to this election, if a voter wanted to vote a straight ticket, there was an option for that,” Huggins said. “This year, the voter will have to go through and choose each candidate.”

The voting machines were tested Monday in front of the county commissioners to ensure the machines are working properly.

“We have the media set up on the Ivotronic Voting Machines,” Huggins said. “We are also checking the Personal Electronic Ballots and running tests on those to verify they have all the data required.”

Officials run through all the ballots for each precinct and for early voting as well.

“The public test verifies all the voting equipment is in proper working order and all ballot styles are properly set up and the electronic ballots are properly set up,” Huggins said. “Some of the things we test for include verifying all ballots are correct, a voter cannot over-vote for races, under-voting is permitted and that write-in candidates are working and tabulation results are correct.”

Huggins said the poll workers were trained last week on duties, and how to deal with different situations that may arise.

“For example, there may be someone who comes into the polls on Election Day, and they may have early voted,” Huggins said. “We cannot turn anyone away who wants to vote, so there are certain procedures poll workers have to follow in order to let that person vote.”

There are also procedures that need to be followed if a voter requires assistance when placing their vote.

Each of the 28 precincts has five poll workers that are appointed by the Republican and Democratic Executive Committees. The two executive committees each choose a clerk and commissioner for each precinct, and the Preston County Commissioners appoint a rover.

Also included with the poll worker training is about preparing food for the day.

“Once the poll workers arrive at 5:30 a.m. they cannot leave the polling place until the polls close,” Huggins said. “So they need to plan for the whole day including what they are going to eat. Also they are not permitted to leave to smoke. The whole process needs to be above board so to speak.”

Early voting for the begins tomorrow at the Office of Emergency Management/E-911 located at 300 Rich Wolfe Drive in the Management Training Room through Saturday, Nov. 5. Early voting at the OEM/E911 will be from 8:30 a.m. until 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.