W.Va. primary voting is underway

by: Clem Guttata

Mon Apr 07, 2008 at 09:53:24 AM EDT

Early voting for the May Primary Election in West Virginia begins on Wednesday, April 23rd.

Voting by absentee ballot, though, is already underway.  Absentee ballots have been sent to thousands of people with just more than five weeks to go until the election.

The Clinton vs. Obama race is an obvious draw, but there are plenty of other reasons to pay attention to this primary, too.

As I'll highlight in a future diary, there are a number of races around the state with no Republican challenger but more than one Democratic Party candidate in the primary. The outcome of those races will be decided on May 13.

Continuing from the article... record turnout is expected:

"It will be a big turnout.  We've told all the clerks to be ready for a huge turnout."

For the first time in West Virginia, independent voters will have the option of voting using either a Democratic ballot or a Republican ballot.  Ireland says the voter must request the ballot they want when they go to vote.  By law, the pollworker can not offer the ballot.

Ireland says the change means candidates for all offices, not just those in the Presidential race, will have to appeal to a number of groups.

[snip]

More than 29% of the registered voters in the state are Republicans, more than 56% are Democrats, less than one percent are members of the Mountain Party, while almost 14% have no party affiliation.  Those non-affiliated voters add up to 165,000 people.