by Liz Beavers
Tribune Managing Editor
KEYSER — As the clock counts down to the special election on Aug. 28 to decide who will be on the November ballot for Sen. Robert C. Byrd's seat, Mineral County is also beginning to put the wheels in motion for holding its fire and ambulance excess levy in conjunction with the General Election.
The Aug. 28 special election, authorized by a special session of the West Virginia Legislature earlier this month, has an abbreviated schedule but, according to Mineral County Clerk Lauren Ellifritz, things are quickly falling into place.
Ellifritz had told the Mineral Daily News Tribune last week that chief among her concerns was whether all of the county's polling places would be available on such short notice and because school will have already started for the year.
That does not seem to be a problem, however.
“I sent out 17 letters and got 14 of them back so far, and they were all 'yeses,'” she said Tuesday at the regular meeting of the Mineral County Commission.
Letters were also to go out today to determine which poll workers would be available. Four are needed for each polling place and the fact that the election is scheduled on a Saturday could be a problem.
Training, however, should not be a problem.
Noting that, because the primary election was just held on May 11, Ellifritz said, “poll workers for this election are exempt
from training if they attended training in May.”
New poll workers, however, will have to take training prior to Aug. 28.
Military ballots are also scheduled to be mailed out today.
Voters may request absentee ballots up until Monday, Aug. 23.
As for early voting, only five days will be available – from Friday, Aug. 20, to Wednesday, Aug. 25. Voting will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., including Saturday, Aug. 21. Early voting will once again be conducted in the commission room on the ground floor of the courthouse.
Both the Ivotronic electronic voting machine and paper ballots will be available at the polls on election day, and the polls will be open the traditional 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Ellifritz said there will be three ballots available – Democrat, Republican, and Mountain Party.
In the meantime, as Ellifritz works toward the special election, County Coordinator Mike Bland will be preparing an order directing the ballot for the county's fire and ambulance excess levy renewal to be placed before the voters during the General Election on Nov. 2.
Combining the two elections will save the county considerable money.
The fire and ambulance excess levy funds the county's fire companies and EMS squads, and will simply be a renewal of the levy that has been in existence for years.
“The rates will be the same,” Bland said.
The commissioners are expected to approve the order for the levy election at the next meeting, scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 10, at 9:30 a.m.
