Local News

Warner visits Elkins before election day

ELKINS -- West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner visited the Randolph County Courthouse Friday afternoon in preparation for the West Virginia Primary Election on Tuesday.

As part of his pre-election tour of county courthouses, Warner drove to Pocahontas County Friday morning. After his Elkins stop, he then headed on to Philippi and after that to Morgantown.

"We're taking election integrity seriously," Warner told The Inter-Mountain Friday. "We've started our 'See Something, Text Something' program here in West Virginia. It's the first one I know of in the nation.

"With this program, every voter can be an extension of our investigative team. If you see something improper happening -- say if someone was trying to campaign within 100 feet of the voting precinct on election day -- you can take a picture and send it in."

Warner said that possible violations of election law can be confidentially reported from any common texting device in three steps: first, text WV to 45995; second, click on the incoming text link; and third, submit the confidential complaint.

Warner noted his office will have investigators assigned to each county on election night, so that if an issue arises, an investigator will be in the area to quickly look into the situation.

"We also have our fraud hotline -- 877-FRAUD WV -- and we just want people to be aware of that," Warner said.

Randolph County Clerk Brenda Wiseman said Friday she was happy that the courthouse will be open to the public Tuesday evening, after COVID-19 precautions forced the election results to be delivered on the courthouse lawn in 2020.

"Election night, we will be upstairs in the courtroom," Wiseman said. "The judge has told us he's fine with us using the courtroom, so we're trying to get everything back to the way it was before COVID.

"We'll be reading the results and passing out copies of the results during the evening," she said. "Anyone who wants to wear a mask is welcome to wear a mask, but we're not requiring masks."

Wiseman pointed out that Tuesday's primary election will be the first in Randolph County to use new voting machines, the first new ones in the county since 2006.

"On Monday we have to deliver the 27 new voting machines to the precincts," she said. "The day after the election we'll have to go back and pick them and bring them back. This is something new for us."

Warner said early voting has been light across the state so far.

"Saturday is the last day for early voting," he said. "If you're going to bring in an absentee ballot, it has to be in the clerk's hands by the close of business on Monday, the day before the election. If you're going to mail it, you can send it as long as it's postmarked by election day at the latest.

"We have not seen a large turnout in early voting," Warner said. "People across the state are telling me they're just not seeing the turnout we saw in 2020. It's an off-year election, we don't have a presidential race, but we do have important congressional races. And we have important local races. That's why I'm encouraging everybody to get out and vote."

Warner also encouraged people to volunteer to be poll workers.

"We are always looking for poll workers. You never know when someone is going to call in sick or get COVID at the last minute, so we always like to have those extras trained and ready to go," he said.

"If you'd like to be a poll worker, it's not too late. Even if you're not used in Tuesday's election, there is the general election in November. It's good to get on the list and get trained."