As Election Day approaches, the deadline gets shorter and shorter to become a registered voter.
Election Day will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 5; however, approved absentee voters can submit their vote through mail. Absentee voting began on Sept. 20 and will run until Oct. 30.
People eligible for absentee voting include those with medical excuses, the elderly, citizens on house arrest and other barriers that may prevent people from making it to the polls on election day.
West Virginia also allows for those that are deployed overseas, first responders and the physically disabled to vote remotely.
“We’ve made it easier than ever for registered West Virginia voters to participate in the election and cast a ballot,” said Mac Warner, the West Virginia Secretary of State, in a press release on Oct. 19.
Warner also said the voter registration deadline is Oct. 15.
In the same press release, Warner said his office has managed to register over 340,000 new voters in the last seven years.
“Confidence in West Virginia elections has never been higher,” he said.
Warner also said he wants to ensure West Virginia citizens understand that his office takes complaints surrounding election law violations very seriously, and every inquiry is investigated by his Investigations Division. All election law investigations are confidential.
Election Law complaint forms can be found on the Secretary of State’s official website.
This same Oct. 15 deadline also applies to those who have changed their legal name since they last voted.
Absentee voters can deliver their ballots, which can be printed out from the Cabell County Clerk’s website, to the clerk’s office at 750 Fifth Avenue, Suite 108. Ballots can be mailed, faxed, emailed or delivered by hand.
Marshall University is a designated Voter Friendly Campus that allows students that are registered to vote in Cabell County to vote early. Students that are registered in any counties other than Cabell can cast a provisional ballot, which will be counted closer to election day and checked to ensure that a student has not voted in multiple counties.
Caden Adkins can be contacted at [email protected].
