BUCKHANNON – The Nov. 5 General Election is quickly approaching, but the deadline to register to vote is only in a couple of weeks.

Upshur County Clerk Carol Smith said the deadline to register or update a voter registration is Oct. 15.

“You may need to update your registration if you have moved,” Smith said. “If you have a new address, it could potentially mean you have a new precinct to vote in. You could have changed your name, or you could have moved from one county to another. Your county registration doesn’t move with you, so if you have moved to a new county, you have to re-register in the new county.”

To register, a voter can either visit their local county clerk’s office or visit the Secretary of State’s website at govotewv.com.

“You can also use that website to make sure you’re still registered,” Smith said. “Sometimes people don’t vote for several years. After six years [of not voting], you will have been taken off the voter rolls, so if this is your first time voting in a while, you may want to check the status of your registration.”

Sample ballots are also available on the Upshur County Clerk tab of the Upshur County website.

“Absentee ballots are being mailed; the last day for us to receive an absentee ballot application is six days before the election,” Smith said. “Early voting starts Oct. 23 and runs through Nov. 2. We have early voting on two Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and through the week, it’s 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the courthouse.”

The polls will open on Election Day, Nov. 5, at 6:30 a.m. and close at 7:30 p.m.

“Just be sure that when you go vote, you take some identification, because you’re required to show that identification,” Smith said. “Feel free to call the office at 304-472-1068, and we can tell you where you would need to go if you can’t find your voter registration card.”

Polling locations are all the same as the 2022 election.

“When you go vote, either early voting or on election day, make sure that you don’t wear or take any kind of campaign materials with you,” Smith said. “No hats, no pens, no shirt, that type of stuff, because you will be asked to take it off or turn it inside out.”