Wood County officials discuss efforts going into primary election

PARKERSBURG — Wood County officials are preparing for the primary election in June.

Wood County Clerk Mark Rhodes gave a presentation before the county commission on Thursday about preparations made to hold the primary while still dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The West Virginia primary election is June 9.

Early voting will start May 27 at the Judge Black Annex. The county’s satellite sites will start early voting on June 2 at the Vienna Community Building, Williamstown Elementary School, Mineral Wells School and Lubeck Elementary.

Those sites would be the locations where voting would occur on election day because the county consolidated precincts due to the unavailability of poll workers.

The commission approved those locations with the option of adding more if needed.

Discussions have taken place to put a satellite location at West Virginia University at Parkersburg. Officials want to consider two other possible locations, if needed.

“The idea would be to help keep lines down,” Rhodes said of bringing in other voting locations.

It will depend on voter turnout as well as the number of people who voted absentee and participated in early voting, Commission President Blair Couch said.

“We want to make sure we get everybody and continue social distancing,” he said. “We are open to making changes that would give people ballot access. There are people out there who have voted in every single election since they were 18 and don’t want to see their streak broke.”

The locations would be open 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday. On Election Day, they would be open 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Officials have sent out applications to all registered voters to see if they want to vote by absentee ballots, due to health concerns.

These would be the election sites on election day for the entire county, due to the number of available poll workers.

Each site will have all the ballot types available and the scanners used to tally the votes will have the different ballots programmed in to do the count.

Poll workers would guide voters to the voting machine of the precinct they belong to, officials said.

Commissioners asked for a demonstration of the voting machines for Monday’s meeting to see how the different ballots will be handled.

Couch said both of his teen-aged sons are interested in being poll workers. County officials have encouraged younger Democrats and Republicans to be poll workers so the polls can be adequately manned on election day. Many older poll workers have health and safety concerns over the pandemic.

Rhodes said they have enough people committed at present to work at the consolidated polling places, around 200 people. However, he has already had some who initially said they could work now saying they won’t be able to due to health concerns.

Rhodes believes other poll workers might have to drop out and wants to have alternates on hand in case they are needed.

He would like to have people signed up so they can be trained during sessions planned for the week of May 18. Interested people can call the county clerk’s office at 304-424-1850 and leave their contact information.

County officials believe the governor could open state offices as early as Monday as the state begins easing COVID-19 restrictions. Local officials are determining the best time for local offices to open while still maintaining social-distancing recommendations.

“We have to have things opened up by election day,” Couch said. “We have to.”

Things should be open by May 27 when early voting begins, he said.

Commissioner Jimmy Colombo said he is seeing an increase in people out and about in the community.

“Everyday you see more and more people out,” he said. “There is more traffic and a lot of people in the parks. People are tired of just staying home.”

The county’s overall infection rate has remained relatively low with only 42 confirmed cases as of Thursday.

“We are not seeing community spread,” Couch said. “It has always been interaction with someone who traveled outside the area.”

People come here because it is a regional center for business and retail.

Couch said he has encountered people who have hair salons who are reopening because they are afraid if they stay closed for too much longer their clients will go elsewhere and they won’t have a business anymore.

Couch is planning to meet today with Parkersburg Mayor Tom Joyce, Vienna Mayor Randy Rapp, Williamstown City Councilman Marty Seufer and representatives from the Mid-Ohio Valley Health Department to draft a joint resolution to have all local government offices opening on the same day, which tentatively could be May 18.

Couch said this would be done so it is uniform and residents will have one date to plan for instead of multiple dates.

In other business, work will begin soon on renovating and fixing the bell tower at the Wood County Courthouse. Materials will be put in place and a crane will be situated near the courthouse next week.

The money for the project is coming from grants already awarded