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I haven't seen any final numbers for early voting yet (Saturday was the last day), but the total as of last Friday was already a new state record since early voting started in 2002:
A record number of West Virginians have cast early ballots for a primary in advance of Tuesday's election.
Secretary of State Betty Ireland reports 49,982 ballots cast in 52 of West Virginia's 55 counties between April 23 and Friday. Ireland's office says another 4,916 absentee ballots have been returned.
The article also says early voters were 71% Democrats and 6.2% independents/nonpartisans. That leaves 22.8% as Republican or Mountain Party. (It's not clear if they mean registered as such or voting on those ballots.)
Update: Thank you to reader "R" for sending in this dispatch about voting in Kanawha County on Saturday:
long lines at the courthouse since before they opened. the staff was still cheerful and professional, but they were clearly tired from a huge turnout by early afternoon. anecdotal from one of the poll workers was close to 1,000 people yesterday and the same already today at 1:30. that would get kanawha much closer to the early vote total from table games (which was slightly over 10,000). up from about 6,000 as reported by one of the charleston rags on friday.
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