CHARLESTON, W.Va.–South Charleston will hold its primary election Saturday night with three of the eight town council seats up for grabs.
City Clerk Margie Spence announced at Thursday night’s city council meeting that polls will open on Saturday night at 6:30 a.m. and will remain open until 7:30 p.m. She said that she hoped for a better turnout than that of the early voting period.
“I would hope there would be a nice turnout for the primary election,” Spence said. “However, we had a pretty low turnout for our early voting. We had approximately 235 voters in a ten-day period for the primary.
She said that all of the incumbents but one are running in Saturday’s primary, and that there are several wards (one, two and three) where the incumbents will get results that night because there is no opposition from the other party in the June 6 general election.
“All candidates probably need to be at voter’s registration. Some of them will get the results of the election that night and not have to go forward to the general,” she explained. “Others will have an opponent in the general.”
The elections for mayor and for clerk will not be settled until the June 6 general election. Spence will be contested by Democrat Thornton Cooper for her position as city clerk.
The current mayor, Frank Mullens, a Republican, will be challenged by Democrat and former Mayor Richie Robb.