Chris Dorst | Gazette-Mail file photo
By: Rick Steelhammer, Staff Writer | Posted: May 9, 2018 | Source: WV Gazette-Mail
A Monday morning canvass of Tuesday’s primary election voting results in Kanawha County could change the outcome of several state, county and city races.
Starting at 7 a.m. Monday, members of the Kanawha County Commission will meet to count absentee ballots, military ballots and 220 provisional ballots, also known as challenged ballots.
Currently, only three votes separate candidates Jeffrey Charles Mace and Rutha Chestnut, who placed first and second, respectively, in seeking the Democratic nomination for a Charleston City Council seat representing Ward 7.
In the race for the female Democratic County Executive Committee position in District 1-I, Malyka Knapp-Smith trails Kristi Webb 206-197, while in the District 4-H Democratic County Executive Committee race, Margaret Pomponio was leading Tracy Hunt by a margin of 202 to 185 votes.
In the Democrats’ 32nd Delegate District race, which includes a small sliver of Kanawha County in the Montgomery area, in addition to all of Fayette County and parts of Clay, Nicholas and Raleigh counties, Luke Lively had collected 17 Kanawha County votes to Melvin Kessler’s 13 votes.
District-wide, Kessler drew 3,221 votes, 187 more than Lively and 703 more than third-place finisher Selina Vickers, leaving Margaret Staggers, with 363 votes, in fourth place and out of the running for the three-seat district.
According to a statement from the Kanawha County Commission, the new voter ID law apparently caused no major issues during the primary election, but the law will be reviewed during the canvass, which is open to the public.
Reach Rick Steelhammer at rsteelhammer@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5169 or follow @rsteelhammer on Twitter.
