MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Early voting for the 2018 Primary Election is officially underway across the state.
Locally, there are a number of contested and uncontested races in Monongalia County.
15 elected offices are officially up for grabs on both the Democratic and Republican tickets.
Among the numerous races with multiple candidates include ones for the U.S. Senate and State Senate.
There will be an expanded number of options for early voting, according to Monongalia County Clerk Carye Blaney
“We have four voting locations throughout the county for early voting,” Blaney said Wednesday on WAJR’s Morgantown AM. “Our main center at the Mountaineer Mall at our election center, Mason-Dixon park out on off of Route 7 on Buckeye Road, the WVU Alumni Center — also known as the Erickson Alumni Center off of Patteson Drive — and University Avenue at One Alumni Drive will be open, and the Westover Community Building.”
Incumbent U.S. House Rep. David McKinely, R-W.Va., is running unopposed for the GOP nomination. But former Orrick CEO Ralph Baxter, WVU professor Kendra Fershee, and campaign veteran Tom Payne are challenging for the Democratic nomination.
Blaney said early voting has become a growing trend, with numbers slowly increasing in comparison to recent elections.
Despite it not changing voter participation numbers as a whole, Blaney says it’s easy to understand why early voting is trending up.
“I think that once a voter goes to early voting and realizes how easy it is, how quick and efficiently they can get in and out and how they don’t have to tie up their election day on that Tuesday May the 8th, that once they vote early, they tend to continue to vote early,” she said.
This election will be slightly unique in that it will be one of the first that will implement a set of voter identification rules.
According to the new standards, all eligible West Virginia voters are required to show at least one form of legal ID before you can officially vote in the election.
Despite the new requirements, Blaney said what will be taken as a form of ID will be very broad and simple.
“It does not need to be a photo identification,” she explains. “It can be identification that is your medicare card, your social security card, a birth certificate, a hunting or fishing license, your voter registration card actually acts as a form of identification.”
Although it’s primary season, one vote that everyone will be eligible to partake in is the one for the Monongalia County Board of Education. Six candidates are running for three spots.
“They will be selected based on highest vote count within their district,” Blaney said. “So there can be two people elected from the Central district or two people elected from the Western district and one from Central but no more than two can be elected in any district.”
Two candidates are running from the Central District and four are running from the Western District.
Voting will take place Mondays from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Tuesday-Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.