Ghent, West Virginia Public Records

Registration must be completed 21 days before any election, and acceptable identification includes a West Virginia driver's license or ID card number, or the last four digits of a Social Security number. As an unincorporated community without municipal government, Ghent has no city council or mayoral elections. Instead, residents participate in county, state, and federal contests. County-level races include the three-member Raleigh County Commission, County Clerk, Sheriff, Assessor, Prosecuting Attorney, and other constitutional offices. West Virginia holds partisan primaries in May and general elections in November of even-numbered years. State legislative races for the West Virginia House of Delegates and State Senate appear every two years, with delegates serving two-year terms and senators four-year terms. Local voters can find their assigned polling place through the West Virginia Secretary of State's polling place lookup tool at https://services.sos.wv.gov/Elections/Voter/FindMyPollingPlace or by contacting the Raleigh County Clerk directly. Public election records in West Virginia include voter registration lists, available for purchase for lawful purposes under West Virginia Code §3-2-30; campaign finance reports filed by candidates and political action committees, searchable online through the West Virginia Secretary of State's Campaign Finance Reporting System at https://cfrs.sos.wv.gov; candidate filings and declarations of candidacy; and precinct-level election results. The County Clerk publishes unofficial results on election night, with official certified results following within days. West Virginia will not have a U.S.Current federal, state, and local election schedules, ballot contests, candidate filings, and certified results for Ghent voters are published by the West Virginia Secretary of State Elections (https://sos.wv.gov/elections/).S. House of Representatives seats representing West Virginia's congressional districts will take place. At the state level, all 100 seats in the West Virginia House of Delegates will be contested, as delegates serve two-year terms. County-level races in 2026 may include positions for Raleigh County Commission (depending on the district rotation), and various county offices depending on term schedules. West Virginia offers absentee voting for voters who will be absent from the county on election day, have a disability or illness, are working during all hours polls are open, or are confined to jail awaiting trial. Absentee ballot applications can be downloaded from https://sos.wv.gov/elections or requested from the Raleigh County Clerk's office. Completed applications must be received by Raleigh County Clerk no later than six days before the election. The state also offers early in-person voting beginning 13 days before election day and ending three days before election day at locations designated by the Raleigh County Clerk. No-excuse absentee voting is not available in West Virginia; voters must have a qualifying reason to vote absentee. Mail-in absentee ballots must be postmarked by election day and received by Raleigh County Clerk within five days after the election to be counted.