Voters wear face coverings and social distance at the Mason County Courthouse as early in-person voting continues through this Saturday, Oct. 31. At several points this past Saturday, voters also stood in the rain, waiting to cast ballots (Beth Sergent | OVP)
POINT PLEASANT — Early in-person voting in West Virginia continues through Saturday, and many have already completed their ballots.
According to the office of Mason County Clerk Diana Cromley, as of closing time on Saturday, 1,262 people had cast their ballots at the court house since early in-person voting began last Wednesday. In comparison, during the last presidential election year, in 2016, in the first three days of early voting (Wednesday-Friday), a total of 1,157 ballots were cast.
The clerk’s office is also reporting 1,859 absentee ballots had been requested, as of 1:30 p.m. on Monday. Of those requests, 1,408 ballots had been returned.
This brings the total to 2,670 ballots completed, with 451 ballots yet to be returned to the clerk’s office.
According to records with the West Virginia Secretary of State’s office, there were 7,300 ballots, total, cast in the June primary in Mason County which represented a 39.9 percent voter turnout.
According to the West Virginia Secretary of State’s website, the deadline for absentee applications is Wednesday, Oct. 28. The applications must be in the clerk’s office by that date.
Completed absentee ballots must be postmarked by election day, Nov. 3.
The deadline to hand-deliver a completed absentee ballot to the county clerk’s office is Nov. 2.
Early in-person voting takes place on the second floor of the courthouse from 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. during the week and on Saturday from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Early in-person voting ends Saturday, Oct. 31.
Polls will be open from 6:30 a.m.- 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 3, for the general election.
Beth Sergent contributed to this article.
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Kayla (Hawthorne) Dunham is a staff writer for Ohio Valley Publishing. Reach her at (304) 675-1333, ext. 1992.
