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I think I've finally caught up on my sleep following the general election, and can mentally handle taking a look back to offer some analysis.
I won't go into great detail on the results as far as who won the races, except to say there were some I was glad to see and others resulted in disappointment. Yes, I'm a journalist, and work to be as impartial as possible in my reporting, but I'm also a voter. Like all of you, I do have certain hopes when casting my ballot.
At the end of the day, though, I have to deal with most of the individuals who will be taking their oaths of office in a couple of months, especially those will be stepping into the offices of the City of Weirton, Hancock County and, to some extend Brooke County, as well as the occasional discussions with state lawmakers.
My biggest focus when looking at elections, to be honest, is to look at the numbers of votes cast. Local county officials had noted record-breaking turnouts for early voting in the two weeks leading up to Nov. 5.
When all was said and done, voter turnout was similar to what we saw during the last presidential cycle four years ago.
Statewide, according to the West Virginia Secretary of State's Office, there were 770,153 votes cast out of 1,209,977 registered voters living in the state. That amounts to approximately 63.65% of the voters participating in the general elections.
Compare that to the 2020 election, when 802,726 votes were cast from the 1,269,219 registered voters, or 63.25% The numbers are pretty close, and take into account the ongoing loss of population in West Virginia, and the various efforts to purge the rolls of inactive voters in recent years.
More locally, Brooke County reported 9,883 ballots cast out of 15,030 registered voters, or 65.76%. Hancock County had 13,163 votes with 19,870 registered voters, or 66.25%. In 2020, Brooke had 10,740 votes from 19,164 registered voters (56.04%) and Hancock had 13,942 votes from 24,376 registered voters (57.2%).
I don't have a detailed breakdown of voting numbers for the city of Weirton at the point of writing this piece. The local canvassing was completed sometime Tuesday, and I hadn't had the opportunity to reach out for that information by my deadline (which was a little earlier than usual this week because of some personal business.)
Just looking at some of the results, though, we still get a good idea of at least the turnout. In the mayor's race, a four-way contest which saw former mayor Dean Harris set to return to the corner office of the Municipal Building by an incredibly slim margin, there were a total of 7,765 votes cast.
That breaks down to 2,573 for Harris, 2,541 for outgoing mayor Harold Miller, 2,309 for outgoing councilmember Flora Perrone, and 342 for resident George Village. These are slightly different from the unofficial numbers reported on election night, which had Harris at 2,560; Miller with 2,528; Perrone with 2,301; and Village with 341.
In comparison, the Secretary of State's Office has recorded 7,095 total votes cast for Weirton's seven council seats. I have no explanation for the disparity, although I do have to wonder if having two council races unopposed has anything to do with it.
The city adjusted its election schedule to align with the presidential election, with officials noting the idea that it would help to save money, primarily from piggybacking off of the county elections, but also with the hope it would increase voter turnout.
It's obviously not an apples to apples comparison because of the schedule change, but I have noted in the past there were only around 1,700 votes cast for Weirton mayor in 2019. That year, the highest number of votes for a single council race was 500, with the lowest at 84. This year, five council races cleared 1,000 votes. Ward 3, which had a three-way contest, appears to have had 1,595 votes cast for council, with Ward 5 at 1,320, followed by Ward 6 at 1,086, Ward 7 at 1,065, Ward 1 at 778, Ward 4 at 6332, and Ward 2 at 619.
It's all food for thought, especially as I'm sure we'll be moving into the cycle for the 2026 election in the coming months.
(Howell, a resident of Colliers, is managing editor of The Weirton Daily Times, and can be contacted at chowell@weirtondailytimes.com or followed on Twitter/X @ChowellWDT)