Early voting began in West Virginia on Wednesday, so today is the third day it has been going on.
I drove over to Charles Town Courthouse, our County’s early voting site. This is a historic location… it was the site of the trial of John Brown for his attack on Harper’s Ferry just prior to the start of the Civil War (It’s also about four blocks from where John Brown was hung as well.) It was about 11:15 in the morning when I got there and there were no visible crowds outside, but the line inside the Courthouse was fairly long and I was told by one of the volunteers that it had been pretty steady all morning. I wanted to take a picture of the line, but they didn’t allow the use of cameras in the Courthouse.
This was an older crowd (younger folks were probably at work or in school.) I was told that it would get even heavier during lunch hour when the local Charles Town working population came by, and another rush would happen later in the day. On October 25th they are starting Saturday hours as well. I guess early voting is a popular advantage.
I wasn’t sure which candidates were drawing the line… you weren’t allowed to enter the voting area wearing buttons or T-shirts promoting one candidate or the other. My guess though, this being Jefferson County’s northern edge, this was a mostly Democratic crowd.
After filling in my ballot and having it sucked into the machine that reads and tallies it, I got my “I voted” sticker, which I slapped on my shirt, and headed back home to Shepherdstown.
Mission Accomplished.
