Voting

The 28th House district covers all of Wayne County. With all Republican ballots cast in the Tuesday primary, Mark Ross had 688 votes while incumbent Del. Josh Booth had 687 — a one vote difference.

Candidates in West Virginia’s May 10 primary are hoping for the chance to earn their party’s nominations for the U.S. House or the state Legislature. The overall ballot in the midterm election may be smaller, but the voting landscape changed after the state's once-a-decade redistricting was completed last fall. Early voting in West Virginia runs from Wednesday through May 7.

Since the last election, several GOP-led states have passed laws that limit who can submit mail-in ballots and vote early. At the same time, U.S. Senate Democrats are pushing to loosen restrictions on a federal level with proposed laws like the For the People Act.

National Voter Registration Day is the fourth Tuesday in September. This year it falls on Sept. 28. The day was created by the National Association of Secretaries of State in 2012 to encourage more people to register and participate in elections.

Ella Marie Haddix was a freshman in college when she was asked to do something no other 18-year-old in the country had done -- register to vote.She was accompanied to the Randolph County courthouse by Jennings Randolph, a U.S. Senator from West Virginia and father of the 26th amendment, which lowered the voting age to 18.

West Virginia elections officials and advocates for voting rights are closely following 40 pages of legislation that would update several voting procedures, including those for early voting, registration and the legal process for disputed results.

On this West Virginia Morning, we hear about those around the Ohio Valley who have recently had their voting rights restored and learn about others who remain disenfranchised from the democratic process. Also, we hear the latest on which counties will be virtual learning-only this week, and we listen back and check in with Mark Combs who was featured in Inside Appalachia’s “The Struggle to Stay” series.

Four years ago, 95 percent of Appalachian counties voted for Donald Trump. National journalists parachuted in to try to understand why. But, what did they miss? This week on Inside Appalachia, we’re talking with voters across Central Appalachia about the issues that matter to them.

The final day to register to vote in West Virginia’s Nov. 3 general election is Tuesday Oct. 13. While state code calls for the deadline to be the close of business, the West Virginia Secretary of State’s office said online registrations — completed after business hours but before midnight — fall to the discretion of county clerks.