General Election Turnout Hits 44 Percent; Tennant Praises Election Workers Statewide 

    Charleston, W.Va. – West Virginia Secretary of State Natalie E. Tennant said today about 44 percent of registered voters cast a ballot during the 2010 General Election. 

    Preliminary reports from the Secretary of State’s Office say about 535,152 people cast a ballot out of the state’s 1,216,023 registered voters. 

    According to the preliminary numbers, Lewis County saw the highest voter turnout, about 60.6 percent. Pocahontas County saw a voter turnout of about 59.4 percent. 

    Doddridge, Gilmer, Harrison, Morgan, Pendleton, Pleasants, Preston, Putnam, Taylor, Tucker, and Upshur Counties all saw voter turnout of over 50 percent. 

    The 44 percent voter turnout for the 2010 midterm election is higher than the 41.6 percent turnout in 2006, and the 42.3 percent in 2002. 

    In fact, it is the highest voter turnout during a midterm election since 49.7 percent in 1994. 

    The increased Election Day voter turnout followed a very strong Early Voting period, when about 108,000 people cast a ballot. The number of people who cast a ballot during the October Early Voting period is the highest ever for a midterm election. 

    “I’m happy with the turnout – especially the early voting totals,” Secretary Tennant said. “About 20 percent of all votes cast were cast during the early voting period, and that’s never happened before.” 

    Secretary Tennant also praised the work of her staff, county clerks, and election officials around the state for running a smooth election despite several potential roadblocks. 

    “Look back to June when Senator Byrd died, just over four months ago. Since then lawmakers have had a special legislative session, completely changed the succession law for this particular case, and then election administrators around the state compressed the entire election process into just under a month. Then we as election administrators turn around and had a regularly scheduled election in November. I’m very proud of all the people who worked so hard to make it possible for West Virginians to have an election in which they could have full faith and confidence.” 

    Secretary Tennant also said she is happy that citizens were not distracted by what she called partisan and personal attacks on everything from ballot design to her application of the law passed by the legislature during the special session. 

    “A lot of times when there is so much political wrangling over our elections process people get turned off,” Tennant said. “I’m glad people could sort through all of it, see that we applied the law fairly, and ran an open and honest election. In the end, more than half a million people went to the polls, and I’m very happy about that.”
    

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