Wood County has poll workers for the general election
Trending
PARKERSBURG - The Wood County Commission was told Monday they currently have enough poll workers lined up to handle the 2026 General Election in November.
Wood County Clerk Joe Gonzales said they currently have enough to conduct the upcoming General Election on Tuesday, Nov. 3
"We have filled all the slots to date," he said. "We have 155 Republican poll workers and 120 Democrats for a total of 275.
"We also have five alternates. We are still accepting alternates in case things change down the road. Right now, we are ahead of the game."
There have been times when poll workers have become ill, got injured, have a family situation they have to attend to and other things that have prevented them from being able to serve on Election Day.
Gonzales wants to have enough alternates in place to be able to fill in if needed.
The county recently consolidated a number of precincts to nine voting locations where other precincts were also located. The new locations were within a mile or so of their former locations.
Those are:
* Precinct 47 was moved from Fellowship Baptist Church to Greenmont Elementary School at 209 58th St. in Vienna.
* Precinct 77 was moved from Edison Middle School to Martin Elementary School, 1301 Hillcrest St. in Parkersburg.
* Precinct 52 was moved from Williamstown City Building to Williamstown Elementary School, 430 Caroline Ave. in Williamstown.
* Precinct 33 was moved from Beechwood Presbyterian Church to the Parkersburg High School Cafeteria at 2101 Dudley Ave. in Parkersburg.
* Precinct 41 was moved from Vienna Public Library to Neale Elementary School, 2305 Grand Central Ave. in Vienna.
* Precinct 10 was moved from Good Shepherd Church to Jefferson Elementary School, 1103 Plum St. in Parkersburg.
* Precinct 35 was moved from Parkersburg and Wood County Public Library to Madison Elementary School, 1426 32nd St. in Parkersburg.
* Precinct 19 was moved from Emmanuel Baptist Church to the new City Park Pavilion, 1920 Park Ave., Building A in Parkersburg.
* Precincts 27, 37A and 38 were moved from Criss Elementary School to the new City Park Pavilion, 1920 Park Ave., Building A in Parkersburg.
Each polling place will have five poll workers. Previously, the county needed 307 poll workers to do an election, now they need 275.
"With the consolidation we did not need as many poll workers," Gonzales said. "Many of the poll workers are submitted by the party."
The clerk's office is also looking for independents and people with no party affiliations to be alternates in case they need them.
However, anyone can volunteer. They have to be registered to vote and a US citizen.
"We welcome anyone who wants to be a poll worker," Gonzales said.
They have to be a US citizen and a registered voter. A recent law was passed that allows juniors and seniors in high school to be poll workers. The students have a 3.0 GPA and their parents and principal have to sign-off.
"We do reach out to the schools to see if students are interested in becoming poll workers," Gonzales said.
Commissioner Jimmy Colombo commended West Virginia's election practices that require a photo ID and other checks which some states don't have.
"We are fortunate in West Virginia," he said. "I think we have good elections.
"I think we have had a good election process for many years," Gonzales replied.
The commission also approved the appointment of Janet Michaels to replace Lewis Rexroad as the Republican Ballot Commissioner. Rexroad contacted officials saying he was no longer able to serve. Commissioners thanked him for serving in the position and wished him well.
In other business, the commission said there are bills coming due for services in fighting the July fire at the Peoples Cartage warehouse fire in south Parkersburg.
SPSI has a bill for the river pumps they brought in that helped get the fire out a lot sooner, Commission President Blair Couch said.
"Without those river pumps we would have been fighting that fire for another week," he said.
Initially, officials told SPSI to bill People Cartage.
Wood County 911 Director Dale McEwuen said he has tried to contact Peoples Cartage, but they aren't returning his calls. He was also informed they were not returning SPSI's calls.
"Now we have to decide how we are going to get this back," Couch said of the money for the bill.
Couch said they wanted to get the bill paid off and suggested contacting the governor's office to see if they can get some assistance. When the area had the PSI fire in 2017, then Governor Jim Justice was able to help with state money to be able to pay some of the bills to groups like SPSI who helped with that fire.
The county would then look for legal avenues to have the money recouped through Peoples Cartage to pay back the state, if approved.
Contact Brett Dunlap at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com