MORGANTOWN — It took Monongalia County Clerk Carye Blaney, her staff and poll workers about 62 minutes from the 7:30 p.m. close of the polls on Election Day to begin handing out finalized reports of the county’s unofficial election results.
By 8:30 p.m. or so, while many counties had yet to post any returns, candidates and well wishers were beginning to trickle out of the county’s election headquarters in the old Mountaineer Mall.
This despite a highly contested midterm cycle which prompted 31,467, or 45.7 percent of the county’s 68,863 registered voters to the polls, either during early voting or on Election Day.
A well-oiled machine is how County Commissioner Ed Hawkins described the county’s election process during Wednesday’s regular meeting.
“Carye, this machine that you’ve put together for elections is just absolutely phenomenal,” he said. “My congratulations.”
Hawkins wasn’t alone in his praise, which, Blaney said, is well deserved by the small army it takes to put out the ballot box in Monongalia County.
“I really can’t say enough about the staff in the county clerk’s office and the poll workers yesterday,” Blaney said. “All the nice comments that have been said about how the election was ran is largely in part to the people who worked very hard to make it that way.”
She explained that a major part of being able to get so many voters through the process with little to no delays was the new voter registration cards, which allows poll workers to scan a barcode as opposed to manually searching for names.
Blaney said her ultimate goal was to have the new voter cards in place by the next presidential election, but getting them out ahead of such an active midterm provided an excellent and virtually flawless trial run.
She said the cards, coupled with the county’s fully digitized ExpressVote balloting equipment, makes the entire process more secure and far more efficient than older methods.
“We’ve been working on that for about a year and I’m just so glad it worked and the voters really embraced it. The poll workers loved it. It’s very easy for them to use. The voters loved it. They would come in with their card in their hand, proud to be a card-carrying voter,” Blaney said.
She went on to say that the county’s 45.7 percent voter turnout well exceeded her predictions, which she put at about 30 percent.
She credited a number of reasons for the turnout, ranging from decent weather to the national political climate.
“I also think when people have a positive experience and they know they can get in and get out, they’re more willing to show up and exercise their rights,” Blaney said. “We’re just really happy with how things turned out.”
Poll worker Michael Meszaros said that despite a steady flow of voters, nobody waited more than a few seconds to be escorted to a voting booth.
“I have never seen such efficiency, such speed and such concern with making sure people were able to vote,” he said. “The system at that polling place worked perfectly all day.”
Commissioner Sean Sikora said he’s heard nothing but compliments from voters. He offered Blaney some of his own.
“As always, it was just a very professional and well-run election,” Sikora said. “I really appreciate everything that you and your staff have done.”
Election results will be certified through the canvassing process on Tuesday at the county’s election headquarters.
Tweet @DominionPostWV. Email bconley@dominionpost.com
