Editorial Roundup: West Virginia

Recent editorials from West Virginia newspapers:

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Sept. 16

The Journal on the need for more election staffers and poll workers:

A report on problems handling absentee ballots during Berkeley County’s primary election is interesting - and somewhat distressing - reading. We hope area election officials will peruse it well in advance of the Nov. 3 election.

It was clear on primary election night, June 9, that there were problems in how ballots were being counted. After the election, Berkeley County Clerk John W. Small Jr. asked for an investigation by West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner’s office.

State investigator Gary Harmison determined that a small number of absentee ballots for the primary election were counted twice. It appears the double counting did not affect the outcomes of any races.

Warner’s office blamed the problem on human error and a lack of controls to prevent it. Berkeley County officials say safeguards were put in place to avoid anything similar happening during the general election.

But Harmison’s report should worry other county election officials.

It is what Harmison was told when he visited an official who had retired after June 9. According to our story, “she described the Voters Registration Office as ‘in chaos,’ where no one wanted to help their fellow employees out and were very stressed due to the postponing of the original primary election and the influx of absentee ballots.”

Indeed, postponing the primary, which had been scheduled for earlier in the spring, posed some challenges. So did the much higher number of voters using absentee ballots, due to the COVID-19 epidemic. All that was compounded by the difficulty some counties experienced in finding people willing to be poll workers while the coronavirus still raged.

But those factors may be even more challenging on Nov. 3. COVID-19 is making a comeback. That may make it even more difficult to find election workers. Beyond any doubt, it will result in more mail-in absentee ballots than in June.

In other words, if stress caused some election workers in June to make mistakes, we can expect it to be even worse in November.

Let us hope area election officials have a plan to handle that. If they need additional resources for the task, county and state officials should provide them. This is an election we simply have to get right in West Virginia.

Online: https://www.journal-news.net

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Sept. 15

The Herald-Dispatch on planned infrastructure improvements in West Virginia:

Sometime in the next three to five years, if all goes according to schedule, the drive from Huntington to Charleston and back will be less wearying.

Work is to begin soon on widening Interstate 64 from the 29th Street exit (Exit 15) to the Merritts Creek connector (Exit 18). When that work is finished, along with other work that is underway, I-64 will be six lanes from the downtown exit (Exit 11) to the mall (Exit 20).

That work combined with the new I-64 bridges - plural - over the Kanawha River between the St. Albans and Nitro exits, along with improving the on and off ramps there, will eliminate most of the bottlenecks and hazardous situations drivers encounter between the two cities.

Although construction zones are seldom fun, they are the price we pay for better and safer roads. Frequent users of I-64 - which includes almost every Tri-State resident with a driver’s license - can look forward to the improvements.

Construction is being paid for through the Roads to Prosperity bond package in 2017. Gov. Jim Justice proposed the program shortly after taking office that year, and it was approved by voters in the fall.

Maybe when the Roads for Prosperity projects are finished, Justice or whoever is governor at that time will turn his or her attention to the state’s secondary road system. Although not as visible or as heavily traveled as I-64, tens of thousands of state residents live along secondary roads or use them to get to work or school. Secondary roads are often the overlooked part of the state highway system. There are few ribbon cuttings or photo ops when they are paved, when slips are stabilized or when guardrails are installed, but they, too, require attention. So far, the candidates of the two major parties have offered little guidance regarding their plans for secondary roads.

Meanwhile, the West Virginia Division of Highways continues to monitor the condition of the cables supporting the roadway of the Frank H. “Gunner” Gatski Memorial Bridge, usually referred to as the East End bridge or the 31st Street bridge.

A reduced weight limit was placed on the bridge in 2018 after a routine inspection found irregularities in the structural elements and possible advanced deterioration of some of the cables in the now 35-year-old bridge.

Greg Bailey, deputy state highway engineer, said engineers are reviewing data from routine inspections to determine if they need to consider making any cable adjustments now or eventually. The bridge was inspected in June and again at the beginning of September.

The East End bridge was the first of its type over the Ohio River. As with other bridges of the cable stay design, problems were found in the 1990s when cables were found to vibrate more than expected in certain weather conditions. Engineers at the time said vibration problems were not a safety problem, but they could lead to unexpected maintenance costs. The East End bridge and others were retrofitted with devices to dampen the vibrations.

West Virginia is a state with limited resources and many infrastructure needs, both in new construction and in maintaining what we have. Water, sewer, road and broadband internet service all compete for a tightening supply of tax dollars. When the immediate problem of COVID-19 has passed, it would be good for state officials to let their constituents know what the master plan is for infrastructure development and how they plan to get us there.

Online: https://www.herald-dispatch.com

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Sept. 14

The Charleston Gazette-Mail on getting the state’s pandemic response back on track:

Gov. Jim Justice is losing control of the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic at the very worst time, as cases and deaths in West Virginia continue to rapidly rise.

The administration didn’t appear to know until late last week that a motocross event bringing thousands of people into the state was planned for Saturday in Fayette County, where schools are online only because of a high number of COVID-19 cases. If state officials had been on top of the situation, maybe they could have shut it down. There also have been reports of organized sporting events in counties where such gatherings are ill-advised.

But nothing is more representative of the problem than the Bible Center School’s decision to resume in-person classes for K-12 students on Monday. The school is in Kanawha County, the second-worst in West Virginia for COVID-19 cases, in relation to metrics for resuming school.

While it’s a horribly selfish decision by the Bible Center, which will put the health of students, teachers and anyone they come into contact with in the broader community at risk, it also shows that some are not viewing the governor and his public health officials as the proper authorities on coronavirus response. It’s hard to imagine the Bible Center trying a stunt like this back in the spring, when the governor was addressing the public daily and enforcing a stay-at-home order.

The Justice administration has undermined itself, to some extent, by continually tinkering with the metrics that determine whether schools may resume in-person classes. And even as the situation spins out of control, Gov. Justice said Monday he wants to loosen restrictions in an effort to get more schools back open. This comes a week after tightening restrictions, while professing that student health is the principal concern guiding everything.

Yes, the pandemic is a shifting predicament and state agencies have to be flexible. But to have schools or event organizers actively flouting executive orders and best health practices exhibits the need for more communication and clearer, firmer guidelines.

Last week, COVID-19 czar Dr. Clay Marsh urged West Virginians to recommit themselves to taking the pandemic seriously, and to be just as vigilant as they were when the coronavirus first hit. Gov. Justice needs to listen to his own expert. His waffling is costly.

Online: https://www.wvgazettemail.com