After all the buildup, Election Night is finally here.
West Virginia MetroNews has total team coverage to get you through.
Hoppy Kercheval and Jeff Jenkins will be at Election Headquarters, while Shauna Johnson heads up the Anchor Desk. We’ll also have livestream analysis from Dave Weekly, T.J. Meadows and Jeff Adams.
Alex Thomas will be at Joe Manchin’s headquarters in Charleston, while Andrew Caridi will be with challenger Patrick Morrisey’s headquarters in Charles Town.
Updated election results will be available here.
9:31 p.m. MetroNews reporter Alex Thomas is at Manchin headquarters in Charleston and spoke with campaign manager Larry Puccio.
National forecasts months ago considered the race in doubt because West Virginia has trended Republican during recent elections.
“Joe Manchin. Joe Manchin is the advantage,” Puccio said. “Joe Manchin is the brand.”
Challenger Patrick Morrisey was slightly ahead in the Eastern Panhandle. He makes his home in Jefferson County.
Manchin won the state’s most populous county, Kanawha, by a significant margin.
9:11 p.m. Multiple networks are calling incumbent Joe Manchin the winner of the U.S. Senate race.
MetroNews also called the race for Manchin after looking at exit polling as well as results around the state.
9:07 p.m. Former Congressman Evan Jenkins has won a seat on the West Virginia Supreme Court. MetroNews has called the race.
Jenkins was leading the Division 2 race by 28,678 votes with 37 percent of precincts reporting.
9:04 p.m. MetroNews has called the 1st Congressional District for incumbent David McKinley, a Republican.
His Democratic opponent was Kendra Fershee.
8:13 p.m. Supreme Court race numbers are starting to come in.
Former Congressman Evan Jenkins has an early lead in one division. Circuit Judge Joanna Tabit has an early lead over former House Speaker Tim Armstead in the other.
Two seats are up for grabs on the state Supreme Court, which has been the subject of controversy for more than a year.
Justice Menis Ketchum resigned July 27, the day before impeachment proceedings were to begin in the House of Delegates.
Justice Robin Davis announced her resignation August 14, one day after the House passed articles of impeachment.
The seat vacated by Ketchum is up for re-election in 2020. The seat vacated by Davis is up for re-election in 2024.
Candidates for Division 1, which represented the seat Ketchum vacated, included: Armstead, Harry Bruner, Robert Carlton, Ronald Hatfield, Mark Hunt, Hiram Lewis, D.C. Offut Jr., Joanna Tabit, Chris Wilkes and Jeff Woods.
Candidates for Division 2, which represented the seat vacated by Davis, included: Jenkins, Jim Douglas, Robert Frank, Jeff Kessler, Brenden Long, Jim O’Brien, William Schwartz, Marty Sheehan, Dennise Smith and William Thompson.
7:59 p.m. West Virginia Senate President Mitch Carmichael has expressed confidence that Republicans will maintain the majority in that body.
“I think we’ll pick up a couple of seats,” Carmichael said in an Election Night interview with Hoppy Kercheval. “I think we’ll be in good shape.”
Half of the 34 state Senate seats and all 100 House of Delegates seats are on the ballot.
Right now, Republicans have a 22-12 majority in the Senate and a 64-36 majority in the House.
7:35 p.m. Major networks say the U.S. Senate race between incumbent Democrat Joe Manchin and Republican challenger Patrick Morrisey is too close to immediately call.
Exit polling off 1,100 Election Day participants done on behalf of MetroNews also showed the headline race is too close to call.
“It looks like what some of the polls were showing, that this race has tightened up quite a bit,” said professional pollster Rex Repass.
Repass went on to say, “It’s a dead heat.”
“I want to be very careful,” Repass said. “It’s exit poll data.”
Even one precinct from one very small West Virginia county showed a very tight race.
7:30 p.m. The polls are closed and the counting begins.
West Virginia’s ballots are filled with significant races.
At the top is incumbent U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat who is facing a challenge by Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, a Republican.
Three congressional races are up for grabs, including an open 3rd District race between Democrat Richard Ojeda and Republican Carol Miller.
Republicans are trying to maintain their majorities in the state Senate and House of Delegates, while Democrats are trying to regain the majorities.
Two state Supreme Court seats are on the ballot after a year of controversy involving justices’ financial decisions and the loss of public trust.
There are two constitutional amendments, too. One would say the state Constitution is neutral on abortion. The second would give the Legislature greater oversight of the judicial branch budget.
And, of course, there are a variety of local ballot decisions, including the race for mayor of Charleston, West Virginia’s capital and largest city.
7:13 p.m. Voting has been active, despite widespread power outages.
Power was out for about 2,000 residents across the state still. Poll workers, power companies and counties worked to make sure power was available for voting precincts.
That meant few precincts had problems, the state’s top elections official said.
“With all the adversity this morning, we’re not experiencing the long lines that the rest of the country is experiencing,” Secretary of State Mac Warner said.
7:07 p.m. Our reporters and political observers are moving into position.
6:30 p.m.
We’re about an hour away from the polls closing, and all signs point to a very busy midterm election.
Through the early voting period, 183,205 cast ballots. That’s about twice the early turnout from four years ago.
Election Day itself was busy, too.
“We have lines at almost every precinct,” Kanawha County Clerk Vera McCormick said earlier today.
“We’ve been sending out extra express voting equipment to the ones that are really back up. When people go to vote, they need to know that there are lines.
