MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Early voting turnout numbers for the 2025 Morgantown Municipal Election have been released by the city that showed numbers nearly exact to the number of ballots cast in 2023.
The Morgantown City Clerk’s Office announced that 716 early voting ballots were cast over a ten-day period that took place between April 16 and April 26. This is a one-voter difference in comparison to early voting participation numbers in the 2023 municipal election, where 717 early votes were cast in the previous election, with 224 casts on Saturday for the final day of early voting in 2025.
“We had a good start at the beginning of early voting, but you know, we always look forward to the last two days of early voting because we see that we’ve had a lot of folks showing up on the last day (in the past),” said Morgantown City Clerk Christine Wade.
Despite the average level of participation in early voting for the 2025 Morgantown Municipal Election, voter registrations were increased in comparison to 2023. According to Wade, 13,480 voters were registered to vote for the 2025 election, which reflected a nearly 400-voter increase from the 13,094 voters registered for the previous election. Results that are considered a positive for the Morgantown City Clerk’s Office.
“In 2023, at the beginning of early voting, our voter registration number was about 13,094; this year it was 13,480,” said Wade on the positive outlook. “So we are up (in comparison to last year).”
Efforts to increase voter registration for the 2025 Morgantown Municipal Election took place as early as the conclusion of the election in 2023, where over 150 responses on a city-supported survey to increase voter registration were considered by the city clerk’s office. This included increasing voter outreach on social media as well as through traditional media that coincided with open registration periods that took place ahead of the start of early voting.
“We have done a little more with our communications department and getting the word out there for folks,” said Wade. “More signage and just being there for folks and answering their calls.”
The hope for the Morgantown City Clerk’s Office is that the efforts to increase voter participation will be reflected by the time polls officially close for the 2025 Morgantown Municipal Election on Tuesday. According to city statistics, 1,697 voters participated in the 2023 election, which reflected a 12.96 percent voter participation rate. With early voting numbers reflecting a near identical total to 2023, the city clerk’s office hopes their efforts can be shown in the voting booths.
“Our communications department has done a fantastic job doing some media blasts and Facebook posts and (other) social media,” said Wade. “So we’re just hoping that we reach as many people as we can.”