MORGANTOWN — Some 11,000 voters in Monongalia County will be impacted by precinct changes made necessary by the redistricting efforts of the West Virginia Legislature.
The Monongalia County Commission on Wednesday declared its intent to approve those changes Jan. 19, following a 30-day public review period.
The commission approved minor changes to the county’s three magisterial districts on Dec. 3.
This part of the process is a bit more involved.
Monongalia County Clerk Carye Blaney said staff within her office have been working on the new precinct map “day-in and day-out for months.”
“This step is changing the voting precincts for the voters who vote on Election Day based on the House of Delegate boundary lines and State Senate boundary lines as ordered by the West Virginia Legislature,” Blaney said. “Those changes are numerous.”
A link at the top of the clerk’s website, monongaliacountyclerk.com, connects to an interactive map where voters can enter their address to see their voting precinct based on the new configuration. A link to that map will also be available on the commission’s website, monongaliacounty.gov.
Further, the changes will be published as a legal advertisement in this newspaper, and the clerk’s office is available at 304-291-7230 to offer assistance and information.
All voters to be impacted will be notified following the commission’s Jan. 19 order finalizing the changes.
“I want the voters not to be afraid that this is going to be some momentous change to them. We will try to make this process as easy as possible,” Blaney said. “We’re just trying to bring awareness that when you go to vote for House of Delegates and State Senate, it’s going to look different than it has in the past. We just want to make sure the voters are aware of that before the election comes up.”
Blaney also pointed out that using any of the county’s early voting locations would eliminate concern or confusion about precincts and polling locations.
The commission noted the complexity of the task handed to Blaney and her counterparts across the state and offered their appreciation to the clerk’s office.
“The voters need to understand, this is a very, very complicated process. I give you and your staff credit for everything you’ve done to get us to this point,” Commission President Sean Sikora said. “You have worked to try to minimize changes as much as possible, but a lot of changes were pushed by the actions of the legislature.”
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