MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Officials with the City of Morgantown have expressed open excitement over the increase in votes cast in the municipal election.
Unofficial results released by the Morgantown City Clerk’s Office late Tuesday night reported that 1,886 ballots were cast for the 2025 Morgantown Municipal Election before accounting for provisional ballots and canvassing, beating the number of ballots cast for the 2023 election by over 150 votes. Morgantown Mayor M. Joe Abu-Ghannam offered congratulations to city staff for their part in helping increase voter turnout for the 2025 election, which reached the over 1,700 vote threshold for the first time since 2017.
“I was ecstatic to hear that the public came out and voted,” said Abu-Ghannam. “One of the things we’re very fortunate to have is very knowledgeable, passionate voters in our community, and it’s just great that they all showed up.”
The votes counted for the 2025 Morgantown Municipal Election took place in seven polling locations across the Morgantown area. This included a location in the Evansdale neighborhood, in South Park, downtown Morgantown, as well as a location in Sabraton and the Morgantown Municipal Airport, among others. With the large number of polling locations to account for what is expected to be just under 2,000 votes when canvassing and provisional ballots are included, the process to vote was considered easy by most of those who participated.
“My address doesn’t match my driver’s license, but it wasn’t an issue,” said South Park resident Joseph Jones. “I just signed; my signatures matched, so they got me moving along. Everybody was super friendly, and it was pretty easy to do.”
According to the unofficial results released after the 1,886 votes were counted in the 2025 Morgantown Municipal election, the race or issue that received the most response was the proposed repeal of the ban on camping on public property, receiving a yay or nay response in each vote cast. The second most responses were towards the proposed charter change to residency requirements for the Morgantown City Manager position, where 1,836 votes were counted; third was the Sixth Ward Morgantown City Council race, which received 1,797. With the number of ballots cast given the hotly contested aspects of one of the measures, city officials credited the city clerk’s office for a smooth election process.
“We can’t thank our city clerk’s office enough,” said Morgantown Director of Public Relations and Communications Brad Riffee. “Christine Wade has done a fantastic job broadcasting the election and election information to all parts of the municipality; it’s been on the radio, television, and newspaper, we can’t thank her enough.”
The increase in the number of votes cast in the 2025 Morgantown Municipal Election has led to total vote numbers not seen in over half a decade. With the 1,886 votes counted ahead of canvassing, the City of Morgantown will have passed the over 1,700 vote threshold for the first time since 2017, when 2,724 votes were cast, making it only the second time it has happened since 2015. While the numbers are projected to get to 1,900 by the time the final ballots are canvassed, the City of Morgantown administration is appreciative of the effort taken by city staff.
“All of our volunteers who made this possible and election staff, that’s the heart of the election,” said Riffee. “And ultimately the people who were voting, so really the community came together tonight for a nice turnout.”
Ballot canvassing for the 2025 Morgantown Municipal Election will take place on May 5.