Election Day is just two days away, and if you didn’t go to early voting, we hope you’re preparing to hit the polls on Tuesday. To help you get ready, here’s everything you need to know for Election Day in the Mountain State.
The first thing you need to know is where to go. We’ve published polling locations in the paper a few times, and if your polling place changed this year, you should have received a notice from the county clerk’s office. If you missed the listings in the paper and you can’t remember where you’re supposed to go, you can find your polling location on the secretary of state’s website. Go to https://apps.sos.wv.gov/Elections/Voter/FindMyPollingPlace and enter the information requested. The next page to come up should show you your voter registration status (active, inactive or cancelled) and your county/precinct. Below that, you’ll find the name and address of your polling place. Polls will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
A list of polling locations is also available on county clerks websites: https://monongaliacountyclerk.com/index.php/elections and https://www.prestoncountyclerkwv.com/services/elections/. If you are unable to access the internet, you can call the Monongalia County Clerk at 304-291-7230 or the Preston County Clerk at 304-329-0070, during normal business hours.
The second thing to know is who you’re voting for. Informed voting is essential to making sure our representative democracy actually represents us. For anyone who would like to read up on the candidates and their positions, The Dominion Post published the Voters Guide on Oct. 23. If you missed it or need another one, copies can picked up at the Greer Building in Sabraton. The Editorial Board also released its candidate endorsements in the Oct. 23 Opinion pages.
The third thing to know is that West Virginia elections now require a form of identification in order to vote. Some accepted forms of ID include: voter registration card, driver’s license (West Virginia or out-of-state), utility bill or bank statement less than six months old, birth certificate or Social Security or Medicare card. For a full list of accepted IDs, visit https://sos.wv.gov/elections/Pages/BeReg.aspx.
The fourth thing to know is that voting is kind of like an open-note test: You don’t have to have all your choices memorized before you enter the voting booth. While cell phones are prohibited, you can take pieces of paper with your choices written down or a filled out sample ballot with you. If you’d like a sample ballot, you can print them from the county clerks’ websites, or you can refer to The Dominion Post newspapers from Oct. 16, 23 and 30. There’s also a sample ballot in today’s paper.
The final thing to know is that your vote matters. It’s easy to believe that a single vote doesn’t count in the grand scheme, but if hundreds of people choose not to vote, the absence of those voters can be enough to tip an election one way or another, especially in close races.
Your vote — your voice — matters.
