MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – With just hours left before polls close in the West Virginia gubernatorial special election, the secretary of state is warning voters about possible election fraud, after several reported receiving fake calls about precinct changes.
“Secretary of State Natalie E. Tennant is warning voters to be wary of phone calls they may receive notifying them of changes to where they will cast a ballot on Election Day,” says the state government website.
“The Secretary of State’s Office has received several reports of voters receiving phone calls with various types of official sounding information, such as a precinct that has moved or a precinct that is closed.”
Communications director Jake Glance told The Daily Caller that the secretary of state heard about it from “voters reporting it to precinct workers in Raleigh and Harrison counties.”
“They had reported getting calls that their precinct had moved,” he said in an email to TheDC. “What we want people to do if they get a call like that is call their county clerk to make sure. It’s very unusual for an election official to make a call like that on Election Day. They would have sent out a postcard to voters days before, or post a sign on the original polling place that the location had moved.”
The Mountain State special election pits Republican Bill Maloney against Democratic acting Governor Earl Ray Tomblin to fill out the remainder of former Gov. Joe Manchin’s term. Manchin, a Democrat, was elected to the U.S. Senate following the death of Democratic former Senator Robert Byrd.
Polls close at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday.