MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Canvassing in Monongalia County resulted in a deduction of 341 provisional ballots and 9 absentee ballots received after the election. Clerk Carye Blaney said more than 75 percent of the ballots not counted was due to improper or no voter registration at all.
A provisional ballot is one cast under protest and not counted until the protest is resolved. The protest could be related to a last name, address, presenting to the wrong polling location, or failure to register to vote.
“There were over 444 provisional ballots, and 341 were determined not to be valid by the Board of Canvassers,” Blaney said. The vast majority of those were not registered to vote at all.”
On Election Day, the busiest polling location was University High School, according to Blaney. The busiest location in the county produced 26 provisional ballots, of which 25 were not counted.
“University High School voted the most people on Election Day in the county,” Blaney said. “There were almost 1,700 people that voted on Election Day at that location, so that’s a very big location for us.”
The Monongalia County Election Headquarters at the Mountaineer Mall was the busiest early voting location during the ten days allowed by law prior to the election. The Board of Canvassers ruled 43 of the 50 provisional ballots cast at that location were ineligible.
“Mountaineer Mall is our largest location, and we voted 13,000 there, 7,000 at Suncrest Town Center, 2,000 at Mason Dixon Park, and over 1,500 at our newest location at the WVU Museum Education Center.”
The canvassing process in Monongalia County started at 9 a.m. with one volunteer short and was substantially complete before 11 a.m. Election Day was a similar performance by Blaney, staff, and volunteers when the polls closed at 7:30 p.m., and printed preliminary results were printed and in the hands of officials and the media in one hour at 8:30 p.m.
“When you do things as quickly as we do them, I think that’s a confidence builder for the voter because they know we don’t let any grass grow under our feet,” Blaney said.
Monongalia County Commission President Sean Sikora said under Blaney’s leadership, elections have been conducted with speed, accuracy, and confidence despite the extra scrutiny created by national concerns over election security.
“Our clerk’s office has complete command of the subject matter, and we have the best clerk’s office in the state when it comes to running elections,” Sikora said.