The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

State News

April 28, 2011

Vote-by-mail election a success

Associated Press

MORGANTOWN —  West Virginia’s first vote-by-mail election was a success.

A total of 3,648 ballots were cast in Morgantown’s municipal elections, City Clerk Linda Little said Wednesday. That’s 2,181 more than were cast during the 2009 election, when voters had to go to physical polling places.

The mail election was a pilot project approved by the Secretary of State’s Office.

The Dominion Post reports unofficial results showed the new Morgantown City Council will be a mix of incumbents and fresh faces come July. According to the initial tally Tuesday, four incumbents are keeping their seats. Two had run unopposed.

The ballots were mailed out in early April. Drop boxes for those that weren’t mailed back closed at 8 p.m. Tuesday, and they were delivered to City Hall within a half-hour.

Little said there were no major problems, but her staff is already thinking about improvements.

“Definitely, we would do it again,” she said, “and we’re strategizing on how to do it better.”

Changes would likely include revisions to the envelopes and creating more distance between the canvassing tables to minimize noise and distractions. She also has to focus even more on educating the public.

“We used every media source we possibly could to get the word out to people,“ she said, “and still, people would call and say, ‘I didn’t see it.’”

Little also would likely open the drop box locations sooner. Many people who didn’t want to mail their ballots back tried to deliver them to three locations around town before those sites opened April 21.

“We see states like Oregon and Washington conducting their entire elections by mail, and now we have Morgantown leading the way here in West Virginia,” said Secretary of State Natalie Tennant. 

Four other towns — Bethany, Harrisville, Paw Paw and West Hamlin — are set to conduct early voting by mail this year, she said.

 

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