TAKING PRECAUTIONS — West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner speaks during a press conference at Liberty Distributors Inc. in Triadelphia Wednesday morning about the personal protection equipment and cleaning supplies being delivered to all 55 counties. -- Scott McCloskey

WHEELING — West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner stopped by Liberty Distributors Inc. in Triadelphia on Wednesday to inspect the massive quantity of personal protection equipment and cleaning supplies being delivered to all 55 counties in preparation for early voting and election day.

During a brief press conference, Warner explained that his office contracted Liberty to distribute the supplies to all 55 counties by early next week, as early voting starts May 27 in West Virginia, with election day scheduled for June 9.

“They (Liberty) are the key point of contact to get all the equipment out,” Warner said.

Warner said he wants all in-person voters and poll workers around the state to know their health and safety is a high priority, as his office ordered thousands of face shields, masks, latex gloves and barrels of hand sanitizer for all 55 counties.

“This is going to be a clean election both literally and figuratively,” Warner commented. “Everybody should feel welcome and safe when they come to the polls to vote in the 1,723 precincts around the state of West Virginia.”

During this time of pandemic, Warner said it is important to provide the public with as many safe ways to vote as possible.

“I am encouraging people to vote. We’ve given them options and I want them to vote and vote early if they can,” Warner explained. “West Virginia has more options than any other state, so let’s take advantage of them. … I want to spread this out so people vote early absentee. If they vote early in person, then that’s going to reduce the number of people at the polls on June 9 election day — and that’s what we all want. We want those crowds dispersed.”

Warner said “the gold standard in voting” is showing up in person at a polling location on election day with trained poll workers from both parties.

“So we never want to move away from that in West Virginia, and up until now, 97 percent of the people in West Virginia have voted in person at a polling location. Right now today, over 208,000 applications have come in to vote absentee, and over 80,000 votes have already been cast in this election. So we can see a large number of absentee ballots coming in,” he added.

Warner said Liberty Distributors is a “wonderful” family-run West Virginia business who have a contract with the state.

“They have done a wonderful job, have a wonderful reputation. … So I’m just excited to be here, to meet them, and see it in operation. It’s living up to its reputation and I have every confidence they are going to get these materials delivered on time to all 55 counties,” Warner commented. “I understand equipment was even coming in as late as last night and they’re going to start putting it on the trucks and shipping out tomorrow.”