MORGANTOWN — The town of Granville is looking to follow Star City and Westover onto the county ballot.
Granville Town Council will conduct a public hearing and vote on July 9 regarding an ordinance to hold a special election as part of the county’s general election ballot, in November. The town’s voters will be asked if they support a move in-cycle with the county.
Should council approve the ordinance and voters back the move with a simple majority in November, the town will hold its standalone election as normal on June 10, 2025. Winners in that election will serve a one-year term and all seats will be back up for election, with the town’s traditional two-year terms, as part of the county’s primary in May 2026.
“It’s pretty cut and dry. We just want to make it more convenient for people to vote in our municipal elections. Star City took the lead on this, and it really does make a lot of sense to encourage participation,” Granville Mayor Patty Lewis said. “We actually wanted to do this last year but we got started too late.”
According to Lewis, 67 of the town’s 646 registered voters participated in its 2023 election.
With the addition of Star City and Westover candidates, the May 14 primary marked the first time municipal elections were held in conjunction with a county-run election.
The impact on turnout was immediate and dramatic in both instances.
The last two standalone elections conducted by Star City saw 121 and 109 voters participate. As part of the county ballot, 314 of Star City’s 1,116 registered voters (28.14%) participated.
In Westover, 55 voters cast ballots in the 2020 municipal election. That number jumped to 127 in 2022. On May 14, 769 ballots were cast by Westover residents, representing just over 28% of the city’s 2,718 registered voters.
Monongalia County Clerk Carye Blaney has repeatedly said she’s been a proponent of municipalities bringing their elections in line with the county since she took office in 2007.
She explains municipalities can make the move with no real extra cost or work for the county, but a tremendous savings of time and money for the municipality.
It’s anticipated that a similar move will be one of the issues discussed as part of an upcoming charter review process by Morgantown City Council.
The city’s 2023 election involving four of the seven city council seats drew 1,697 voters. That’s 12.96% or roughly one-in-eight registered voters.
While Morgantown did put a charter change regarding the city’s election process before its voters in 2021, those changes extended council terms from two to four years and staggered elections so no more than four seats were up every two years. It did not include an option to move the election date.
Conversations about doing so have traditionally faced concerns about the city’s issues getting lost in the tumult and partisanship of state and national races.
There’s been a push within the West Virginia Legislature to mandate municipalities move in line with county elections.
“I hope we’re willing to look at that,” Morgantown City Councilor Danielle Trumble said. “I think if we don’t do it willingly the state’s ultimately going to make us.”
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