First Round Of Absentee Ballots In The County To Be Replaced

By Marija Ilic

Election season in West Virginia has already started, and the first round of absentee ballots was mailed last week. However, after they were mailed out, it was discovered that Democratic candidate for the State Senate, Mandy Smith Weirich, was left off of the ballot in Barbour County, prompting immediate reaction by the Barbour County Clerk’s office to correct the issue.

According to the statement by Smith Weirich’s campaign, the issue was brought to the attention by some of the voters and by the opponent, and the campaign reached out to Secretary of State’s office that confirmed that the replacement ballots can be resent to 103 people who have already received theirs. Campaign stated that they “believe this was an honest mistake and appreciate the swift action taken by Barbour County to remedy the situation.” County Clerk’s office has also shared the names of people who received incorrect ballot with the campaign.

The voters who have already received the ballot with Smith Weirich’s name omitted will be receiving the replacement ballot with letter containing instructions on how to proceed. As soon as the mistake was noticed, mailing of absentee ballots was temporarily paused until the batch of replacement ballots was received.