MORGANTOWN — It’s been a nervous week for the Williams family.
That appears to have ended at about 1:30 p.m. Monday when election canvassing in Monongalia County expanded incumbent Delegate John Williams’ election night lead for the fifth and final 51st House seat from 25 votes to 33 over former Delegate Cindy Frich.
The official results of the House of Delegates 51st District include: Barbara Evans Fleischauer (D) 19,718; Evan Hansen (D) 18,800; Joe Statler (R) 18,304; Danielle Walker (D) 17,931; John Williams (D) 17,737; Cindy Frich (R) 17,704; Rodney Pyles (D) 17,689.
“I feel really good, but I want to make sure that I thank my family, who’ve been so concerned about this result over the past few days. My wife has been on pins and needles, so I really want to thank them for being there with me these six days or so,” Williams said, noting he’s excited to get back to work despite Republicans claiming a super majority of delegate seats.
One of those Republican pickups came out of the 51st District, where Statler, a former delegate, will return to Charleston in place of Pyles, a Democrat incumbent.
While not nearly as close, the race for the Eastern District seat on the Monongalia County Commission was also technically still in play heading into canvassing.
Just as with Williams, however, challenger Jeff Arnett (D) actually saw his election night lead over incumbent Ed Hawkins (R) expand from 162 to 194 votes following canvassing — Arnett 19,937; Hawkins 19,743.
Arnett will join Tom Bloom (D) and Sean Sikora (R) on the body come January.
He said it was nice to bring some finality to the process.
“Our county clerk is the best in the state. I don’t think there’s any question about that. They’ve tabulated the results and here we are,” Arnett said. “I’m just very grateful to the voters and supports who cast their votes for us. I’m happy to get to work and keep Monongalia County moving forward.”
The result of the commission race continues a recent trend. There’s only been once commissioner reelected since 2006 — Bloom, in 2018. A member of the commission is up for election every two years.
One of the commission’s duties is to sit as the county’s canvassing board. Hawkins chose not to participate given the tight nature of his race and the tenor of the post-election conversation nationwide.
All told, the canvassing board allowed 152 provisional ballots and 245 absentee ballots that arrived after Election Day. That brings the county’s total ballots cast to 42,503, or 57.04% of the county’s 74,516 registered voters.
Hand counts were conducted of Precincts 62 and 76 as part of the canvassing process.
“We have to thank Carye Blaney and her staff. It was so efficient. She made it very clear and easy for us and also for the people here watching,” Bloom said. “That’s democracy at its finest. That’s how it should be.”
