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RANDOLPH COUNTY -- Multiple Randolph County towns will have empty slots on their election ballots Tuesday, and at least two of the towns have followed the state's rules requiring write-in candidates to be registered.
No names will be on the ballot for the Huttonsville general election on Tuesday, as the incumbent mayor and city council members are now running as write-ins after they all missed the deadline to register as candidates.
"It's normal to forget the sign-up deadlines," Donald Kersey, general counsel and deputy secretary for the West Virginia Secretary of State's office, told The Inter-Mountain this week, adding that it is not unusual for incumbents to miss the deadlines.
Kersey explained that so long as candidates sign up by the April deadline to become official write-in candidates, they are permitted to be written onto ballots by voters. Any unofficial names written on the ballots will not be counted, however, he said.
Huttonsville's current mayor, Reuben Currence, who is running for re-election as a write-in, explained to The Inter-Mountain how the ballot snafu happened.
Currence said the town clerk, Sara Gladwell, was not able to attend two town council meetings in a row and was unable to give the official candidacy forms to the mayor and council members in time for the January deadline. The incumbents all filed to be counted as official write-in candidates by the second deadline in April, he said.
The current Huttonsville town council members, who are all running as official write-in candidates, are Marvella Currence, Jedson Liggett, Lisa Shrader, Suzanne Thompson and Jenny Lanham.
In Mill Creek, only four names are on the ballot for the five town council seats. The fifth council slot on the ballot is blank.
Mill Creek's mayor, Gary Coffman, confirmed Friday that several people filed to be town council candidate write-ins by the April deadline. The write-in candidates are incumbent Debbie Williams, Julie Light, Marcus Blankenship, Debbie Williams and Tom Williams.
The four candidates listed on the ballot for the five Mill Creek town council slots are Tom Proudfoot, Michael Parrack, Kathy Stalnaker and Greg Teter.
Bill Brock is challenging Coffman for the Mill Creek mayor's position in Tuesday's election.
In Harman, only three names are on the ballot for five town council positions in the Tuesday election. For the other two slots, a line has been placed on the ballot over the word "write-in."
The Inter-Mountain reached out to Harman Town Hall for comment on Friday, but no Harman official returned the calls.