Make your voice heard. Go vote!

As the adage goes, you can’t complain about government if you don’t vote.

So go vote.

Early in-person voting started last Wednesday and goes until June 6. Locations for early voting are Mountaineer Mall, Mason-Dixon Park, Westover Community Building, WVU Alumni Center, Fort Pierpont – Suite #102. You can go during the business’ usual hours and from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturdays. Polling locations are closed Sundays.

Of course, you can still vote absentee. Wednesday is the last day you can request an absentee ballot. Applications for a ballot received after Wednesday don’t count, so if you need to send an application for a ballot, put it in the mail Monday.

June 8 is the deadline to hand-deliver your completed absentee ballot to the county clerk. Mailed ballots will be accepted as late as June 15, as long as they are postmarked by June 9.

You can always vote in person on June 9, Election Day. To find your polling place, use https://services.sos.wv.gov/
Elections/Voter/FindMyPollingPlace

We hope you’ll take advantage of mail-in and early voting, though. COVID-19 is still making its rounds through our community, and if we can avoid crowded places, we should. Early voting locations tend to be less crowded than the polls on Election Day. And mail-in voting prevents you from having to go out in public at all.

We also hope you’ll take safety and health precautions if you choose to vote in person. Remember: Wearing a mask and using hand sanitizer doesn’t just protect you — it protects community members who are more vulnerable to the coronavirus than you.

The most important thing is to vote — no matter how you choose to do it. It is our constitutional right to participate in the democratic process. Many of us feel like our votes don’t matter, and maybe a single vote can’t change an outcome, but lots of single votes can. When everyone votes, the numbers add up. On average, only about 60% of eligible voters turn out for presidential elections, according to FairVote.org. Can you imagine how an election’s results might change if the other 40% cast their ballots?

We also have some important races this year. The primary will determine who squares off in November to become our state’s governor. Gov. Jim Justice isn’t running unopposed in the primary, so it’s possible the incumbent won’t be on the general election ballot. If you want him there — or if you don’t — make sure to vote in the primary.

The primary is also the deciding race for multiple offices, such as local courts, the state supreme court and boards of education. If you don’t like the way our courts or schools operate, this is the time to make your voice heard.

If you want to know more about each candidate before voting, check out The Dominion Post Voter’s Guide.
Find it online at dominionpost.com/voters-guide-2020/. If you’d prefer a hard copy, contact our circulation department, where the May 24 edition with Voter’s Guide is available for purchase.

This is your chance to affect change in our government, so take it. And if you want to complain about the way things are run, you’d better go vote.