Charleston, W.Va. (WVDN) – West Virginia’s first statewide election requiring voters to provide a photo ID to vote was well-received by the voters, according to WV Secretary of State Kris Warner. At the request of Secretary Warner in 2025, the legislature overwhelmingly passed legislation to make West Virginia one of 24 other states in the nation to require voters to present a photo ID to vote.
“Providing a photo ID to vote creates a higher level of security and confidence in elections,” said Secretary Warner. “The county clerks did a great job of educating the public on the change.”
While the overall voter turnout was lower than what the Secretary had hoped for, he was still encouraged by the safe, secure, and successful deployment of Tuesday’s election, working closely with the state’s 55 county clerks. This was Secretary Warner’s first statewide election as the state’s chief elections official.
Highlights and preliminary totals from the May 12th Primary Election include:
A preliminary total of 250,755 registered voters cast ballots for the election. That includes 67,361 who voted early in-person from April 29th to May 9th, as well as 3,533 voters who participated by absentee ballot prior to election day.
Those preliminary voter participation numbers will increase as provisional ballots and timely postmarked absentee ballots are considered during the canvass.
There were 1,684 precincts, including 34 split precincts, open on election day, and a total of 1,198,933 registered voters were eligible to vote.
A total of 2,717 candidates participated in the election.
County Boards of Canvassers will begin canvassing on Monday, May 18th, or as soon after that date that a quorum is present. Following the declaration of results at the end of the canvass, candidates have 48 hours or until the election is certified, whichever is greater, to request a recount. For races in multi-county districts, the 48-hour clock does not begin until the last county in the district declares the results.
“I want to express my sincere appreciation to the county clerks and the more than 8,500 election day workers that helped our Primary Election run smoothly,” said Secretary Warner. “I also want to thank all of the candidates who participated.”
“But most of all, I’d like to thank the voters who made time to cast a ballot. We are doing our best to make it easy to register and easy to vote. My office is always open to suggestions as to how we can do better in the future.”
In response to inquiries concerning the timing of unofficial election night results published on the Secretary of State’s Election Night Reporting (ENR) portal, the Secretary of State’s Office reminds the public that state law does not require counties to submit results electronically on election night.
Results published by news outlets are obtained from printed reports provided by election officials to persons present in their courthouses on election night after polls close, which is a simple and fast process. However, the ENR portal only displays results when a county employee uploads the results from the tabulation system, which is a more time-consuming and security-intensive process.
Therefore, the timing of results in the ENR portal is wholly dependent on county employees pausing their ballot counting process to upload results. For this election, all 55 counties voluntarily agreed to use the portal, which remained operational and experienced no technical difficulties throughout the night. However, many counties provided printed results to media physically present in their courthouses sooner and on a more frequent basis than they uploaded results into the ENR website.
