MORGANTOWN — Due to the length of the ballot in the upcoming primary election, Monongalia County Clerk Carye Blaney is encouraging voters to familiarize themselves with the ballot before heading to the polls.
A sample ballot can be found on Pages A6-7 and B5-6 of today’s newspaper. The sample ballot will also be included in the May 5 and 12 editions of The Dominion Post and is available at monongaliacountyclerk.com.
The length of the ballots shines a light on an interesting, if little-known, regulation regarding how much time voters can take to cast their votes.
WV Code 3-1-37 titled, ‘Restrictions on presence and conduct at polls’ states, in part … “No person may remain in or occupy a booth or compartment longer than may be necessary to prepare his or her ballot, and in no event longer than five minutes, except that any person who claims a disability pursuant to section thirty-four of this article shall have additional time up to ten additional minutes to prepare his or her ballot.”
Blaney said this has never been an issue in Monongalia County and won’t be an issue this time around.
“We have never had to enforce this time limit in our county because our electronic equipment makes the ballot very easy to get through quickly, and we never have voters waiting very long in lines, so a lot of people would never know it exists in code,” she said. “We certainly will not be monitoring the time it takes a voter to mark their ballot when they come in to vote.”
That said, Blaney noted there are five levies on the primary ballot for voters to read through and ballot machines can time out if there’s been more than five minutes of inactivity — think screen saver mode on a personal computer.
She said a focus of poll worker training this time around has been on how best to assist voters whose machines time out.
Voters can do their part to help prevent confusion and inactivity on Election Day by taking the time to look through the ballot prior to heading to the polls.
“The voter can bring their sample ballot with them to vote so they are not surprised by all the contests and questions that will be on the ballot,” she said, explaining that municipal contests will also be on the ballot for voters in Star City and Westover.
Public testing of the county’s voting equipment will be held at 2 p.m. today (Wednesday) at the Election Center in the Mountaineer Mall.
Early voting runs for 10 days starting May 1 (excluding Sundays) at Mountaineer Mall, Mason-Dixon Park and Suncrest Towne Centre (Suite 101). Hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Election Day is May 14.
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