Local county clerk approves of measure to consolidate local, statewide elections

PARKERSBURG, W.Va. (WTAP) - A bill determining when certain local elections are held meets with the approval of Wood County’s clerk.

House Bill 2592 was recently approved by the West Virginia House of Delegates, and now is under consideration in the Senate.

It would require local elections to be held at the same time as state elections.

Until the 2008 vote, Parkersburg and Vienna used to hold their municipal elections in a different year than the state and national elections.

Wood County Clerk Mark Rhodes says the combined elections have resulted in higher voter turnout for the local races.

”Turnouts in municipalities were somewhere around 20-25%. Turnouts in some of our elections now are close to 37-42% for the primaries, and 65-75% for the general elections. So it has increased the turnout for each of the municipalities to go along with that.”

The city elections were conducted by the city clerk’s offices, and changing the dates to coincide with state and national elections were done with the intent of saving money for the cities.

Currently, counties have held special elections for such issues as school levies. Those have traditionally been held on Saturdays.

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