Early voting for Nov. 8 election starts Wednesday

Charles Boothe, Bluefield Daily Telegraph, W.Va.
Updated ·3 min read

Oct. 22—BLUEFIELD — Registered voters in West Virginia get a chance to cast their ballot in person next week for the Nov. 8 election.

Early voting starts Wednesday and runs through Nov. 5, and that includes Saturday, Oct. 29 and Saturday, Nov. 5.

Mercer County has four early voting locations..

Marie Hill, with the county voter registration office, said the four early voting sites are the same as before: Mercer County Courthouse, Sims Wellness Center on Stadium Drive in Bluefield, Four Seasons Answering Service at 3311 Coal Heritage Road in Bluewell and Covenant Baptist Church at 145 Wyndale Dr. in Princeton.

Mercer County now has four different House districts, 36th (Bluefield area), 37th (Princeton area), 38th (north of Princeton) and the 41st, which is Summers and Raleigh counties but includes a small part of the northern area of the county.

Ballots will be different for those districts, but Hill said anyone can vote at any of the early voting precincts.

Poll workers will make sure each voter has the appropriate ballot on the voting machine, she said.

"We wanted to make it as convenient for the voters as possible," Hill said, so voters can cast their ballots at any of the four locations regardless of where they live.

Hill said that on election day, Nov. 8, when all precincts are open, voters must, as usual, cast their ballots at the appropriate precinct where they live.

In McDowell County, the only voting precinct for early voting is at the County Courthouse in Welch.

Voters have two places to cast early votes in Monroe County: at the lower level of the 911 Center directly behind the Courthouse and at the Peterstown Town Hall.

Hours for early voting are the same at all locations. Those hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays, and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays.

Only one race will be on all voters' ballots in the three counties.

In Congressional District 1, incumbent Republican Carol Miller is facing Democrat Lacy Watson of Bluefield and Independent Belinda Fox-Spencer of Peterstown.

The state Senate District 6 race pits incumbent Republican Mark R. Maynard of Wayne against Democrat Tiffany Clemins of Welch.

House District 36 has incumbent Del. Ed Evans, of Welch, a Democrat, facing Republican Anita Hall, also of Welch.

District 37, which includes the Bluefield area, has incumbent Republican Marty Gearheart challenged by Democrat Skip Crane.

Republican incumbent Joe C. Ellington Jr. is facing Democrat Tina Russell in House District 38, which is in the Princeton area.

Incumbent Republican Del. Doug Smith is unopposed in District 39.

In District 40, Democrat Becky Crabtree of Lindside (Monroe County) is challenging incumbent Del. Roy G. Cooper of Wayside.

The only local contested race in Mercer county pits incumbent Republican Commissioner Bill Archer against Democratic challenger Jeff Disibbio.

Verlin T. Moyer is running unopposed for County Clerk and Julie Grubb Ball is unopposed for Circuit Clerk. Both are incumbent Republicans.

In McDowell County, the only contested local race has incumbent Commissioner Michael D. Brooks, a Democrat, being challenged by Republican Martin B. West.

Donald L. Hicks is unopposed for County Clerk and Francine Spencer is unopposed for Circuit Clerk. Both are Democrats and incumbents.

Monroe County has two local contested races.

Republican incumbent Commissioner Kevin Galford is being challenged by Democrat Kevin Glover.

Incumbent Democratic Circuit Clerk Leta Gulette-Comer is facing Republican Daniel Tickle.

Jeremy Meadows, a Republican, is the lone candidate for County Clerk.

— Contact Charles Boothe at cboothe@bdtonline.com

Contact Charles Boothe at cboothe@bdtonline.com