The primary election is all but finished in West Virginia as we head into the weekend. All that’s left is for the counties to canvass their results and send them to Charleston for their official certification next week.

Let’s start out by looking at some of the numbers from Tuesday night.

According to the West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office, 21 percent of West Virginia’s registered voters took part in our state’s primary election. It was the state’s first election where voters were required to present a photo ID in order to cast their ballot. I would debate officials who say 21 percent was “well received by the voters,” but, here we are.

Looking through the data, the percentage was actually 20.91 percent, with 250,755 ballots cast out of the state’s 1,198,933 registered voters.

Here in the Northern Panhandle, Hancock County saw 4,436 ballots cast out of its 18,728 registered voters. That comes out to 23.69 percent.

Brooke County, meanwhile, had only 2,634 ballots with 15,153 registered voters living in the county, or 17.38 percent of those registered took the time to actually participate in the election.

Our newspapers don’t circulate in Ohio County, but since it is so close, and some of our elected officials also represent portions of that county, they had 6,129 of their 27,154 registered voters take part in Tuesday’s primary election. That’s 22.57 percent.

Let’s compare that to the 2024 primary election, where 360,220 of West Virginia’s 1,181,437 registered voters at that time took part, working out to 30.49 percent.

That year, Hancock County had a voter turnout of 28.49 percent for the primary election, with 5,496 of 19,290 voters taking part, and Brooke County had 32.26 percent with 4,749 of 14,721 voters.

2024, of course, was a presidential election year. West Virginia also had its gubernatorial election on the ballot that year, along with numerous other elections which, no doubt, grabbed people’s attention.

So, let’s look at 2022, the most recent “off cycle” election.

That year, West Virginia saw 260,274 ballots cast from 1,135,601 registered voters. Percentages are close to this year, then with 22.92 percent, but still a higher turnout and more registered voters on the books, as well.

In 2022, Brooke County saw 3,639 of its then 14,446 registered voters come out to the polls (25.19 percent), while Hancock had 5,079 of its 18,503 voters (27.45 percent).

All of these numbers are available through the Secretary of State’s online election portal, along with data going back to 2008. Prior to that, you have to do some old-fashioned research through the West Virginia Blue Book, although archived digital copies of those also are available online if you are so inclined.

It can be hard to determine the differences in numbers. Sure, changes in population will have something to do with it. The efforts by the state to “clean up” the voter rolls also can contribute. Many will point to voters simply having a lack of interest based on the content of the ballot. Obviously, when a presidential election is taking place, it gets more attention, but one would hope the people would continue to want to participate in the process no matter what office is up for grabs. We’re still selecting people to represent us, after all.

There were a few surprises, at least to me, from Tuesday. I thought, for example, the race for the Republican nomination for District 1 in the state Senate might be a bit closer than it was between incumbent Laura Wakim Chapman and Joe Eddy. Both are well known and made the rounds to our communities, so to see an almost 20 percent difference was interesting.

Just as interesting was the results of the Hancock County Commission Republican nominee election, which was pretty much an 80-20 split the entire night in favor of Ronnie Jones. Whatever your feelings on things in Hancock County may be, a clear message was sent there. What happens in November will tell a lot.

There was a 161 gap between newcomer Tony Viola and incumbent Mark Zatezalo for the District 2 state House seat, with Viola coming out on top. Brooke County came out for Viola, who received 287 votes to Zatezalo’s 121. That’s what got him the win. Compare that to Hancock County, where Zatezalo led by only five votes.

Stacey Wise pulled out her victory to stay on the Brooke County Commission by fewer than 40 votes against Kevin Himmelrick.

There were some close ones for our local school board races, as well, with some of the winners in both Hancock and Brooke counties determined more by where they live than by their vote totals.

Let us look at these races and remind ourselves that every vote counts. Keep that in mind when it comes time to step back up to those polling stations in the fall.

(Howell, a resident of Colliers, is part of the news staff of The Weirton Daily Times. He can be contacted at chowell@weirtondailytimes.com or followed on Twitter/X @CHowellWDT)