Updated June 3, 2026 09:14AM
West Virginia
Voting: The Kids Are Not All Right – West Virginia Public Broadcasting
This story aired in the June 4, 2024 episode of West Virginia Morning.
Voter turnout in West Virginia, and across the country, is low. It’s even worse among young voters who say they are disconnected and not interested.
Just before the May 14 primary election, two journalism students from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism based in Washington, D.C. — Meaghan Downey and Anastasia Mason — came to the Mountain State to report on the state’s low voter turnout and the effect it has on young voters.
They spoke with students at West Virginia University (WVU) and BridgeValley Community and Technical College. This is part of a larger project the journalism students are working on about how young peoples’ disillusionment with political institutions is a threat to democracy.
We are in our early 20s and have both studied politics. We’re following the upcoming election pretty closely. But we realized a lot of our friends aren’t and we wanted to find out if we were unusual.
We discovered that, according to voting data, yes, we are. Young people turn out to vote a lot less than older people. And it’s worse in some states than others.
West Virginia is one of those states. In 2020, only four states had worse young voter turnout. For our research, we traveled to WVU. There, we asked the students whether they’ll participate in the upcoming election.
“Probably not. I just don’t really know a whole lot about it, you know?” said Emily Reed.
“I definitely feel like there’s not as many people who are like, focused on voting because they think that one vote can’t make a difference,” said Sam Carver.
Alanna Berry agreed with Reed and Carver. “Honestly, I don’t know who the candidates are. Are we talking about Biden?”
Most of the young people we met weren’t sure they were going to vote. We learned that 18 to 29-year-olds feel disconnected from politics across America. A poll released recently from Harvard’s Kennedy School showed the lowest levels of confidence in public institutions since the survey began 24 years ago.
According to Amherst College Professor Austin Sarat, it’s a stark contrast to previous generations.
“About 75 percent of people born in the 1930s say it is essential to live in a society governed democratically,” he said. “People born in the 1980s and later, that number is 25 percent.”
Younger generations are not voting, they’re frustrated, and they’re disillusioned with democracy. The question for the researchers was: “How did we get here?”
And more importantly: “Why don’t young West Virginians vote?”
It’s a problem that even long-term political organizers like the West Virginia Citizen Action Group have been struggling with. The organization has worked for nearly 50 years to encourage citizen participation in government.
Julie Archer, the group’s project manager, said the culture in West Virginia plays a role in why people don’t vote.
“Part of it might be like, kind of Appalachian fatalism,” she said. “We have had some examples of politicians that were pretty corrupt, and so anytime you have something like that, I think it just reflects negatively on even the people who are in there who are good and who are responsive to their constituents and want to do the right thing.”
For 80 years, West Virginia was a blue state. In 2000, the state flipped red and has voted increasingly conservative since. But Archer and her fellow activists say West Virginians feel that — whether it’s Democrats or Republicans in charge — the state’s big problems, especially poverty, don’t go away.
At a Sunday night potluck in Morgantown, local organizations gathered in the upstairs gym of a local church across the street from WVU. They’re talking about social, political and environmental justice.
Photo Credit: Anastasia Mason/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Jessica Nelson is one of the few young people there. She tells us why voting is towards the bottom of many West Virginians’ to-do lists.
“Just taking time off to get to the poll is a huge challenge,” Nelson said. “You know, getting a ride, getting time off, having someone to watch your kids or cover your shift, things like that. And even if you could find all that stuff, it’s a headache to do it. Are you really going to do that every two years for something that feels like it has no effect?”
Nelson is the opinions editor for the local paper. She met up with her mom, Cynthia, and the two of them had lots of opinions. They agree that nonvoting only makes matters worse. And it’s at the local level where the most damage is done.
“Our neighboring county, Preston, the buildings are literally falling down around the students,” Cynthia Nelson said. ”And they can’t pass the levy to save their lives, because it’s a very impoverished county and people say, ‘I can’t afford those additional taxes to build a school.’”
Young West Virginians have grown up in a culture of nonvoting. And some saw the effects of it in their schools.
Young people who are interested in voting often feel shut out of politics or think they don’t know enough to cast their ballots. A 2022 poll from the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts found that only 40 percent of young people feel well-qualified to participate in politics.
In South Charleston at BridgeValley Community and Technical College, we met 21-year-old Alexzander Messer. We asked him if he felt young people were encouraged to vote. He is from Madison in Boone County.
“Maybe encouraged, but talked about only specifically usually in one way,” Messer said. “There’s one way to vote usually around here, especially where I’m from. Republican, typically.”
He noted that some areas and states vote traditionally Democrat.
“So I’m not really sure if people know what they vote for,” he said.
That one-sidedness of the political conversation has dissuaded Messer from voting, he said.
“I probably won’t vote because I don’t get into it,” he said. “I don’t have a side. If I did, I’m relatively independent. I see things both ways. But there’s just drama with it. So there’s not really anything for me to vote for.”
On the other hand, he said he felt voting is important.
“I would say it is important to vote but then I did say I don’t vote myself. So it is important, but again, I haven’t done it,” he said.
Amherst professor Sarat said there’s a big problem, not just in West Virginia, but across the country.
“Many of the students that I teach are caught between hope and resignation,” he said. “And that resignation is young people have reason to be resigned and disillusioned. How do you move a group of people, a community, a society, a university from one place to the next? And what’s missing, between resignation and hope, is a commitment to democracy.”
Data shows that nearly a third of youth believe democracy is no longer viable in the U.S., according to a 2023 YouGov study.
The stark contrast between this generation and previous generations’ commitment to democracy is alarming for people like Sarat.
“Why are people my age more attached to democracy?” he said. “In part, because we grew up at a time when democracy was really threatened by fascism and communism. Young people have grown up at a time when they could take democracy for granted with all of its flaws.”
Sarat thinks things can get better. There were record turnouts of young voters last election.
“A conversation about democracy, which was dormant before Donald Trump came down the elevator, is now very much part of the American conversation,” he said. “Maybe that will, overtime, reconnect people to why democracy is important, why participation is important, why it’s important to get out there and get your hands dirty to make political change.”
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SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Keyser opponents face a tough decision in deciding whether or not to pitch to one of the most feared and productive hitters across West Virginia in Riley ‘Bibs’ Felton.
Class AAA No. 6 PikeView elected not to and intentionally walked Felton to start the bottom of the seventh inning with an elimination matchup tied at 3.
That move backfired when Brielle Root followed by belting a double to deep right field that allowed Felton to easily score the winning run as Keyser prolonged its season at least another game with a 4-3 win at The Rock Field B at Little Creek Park.
“I had the feeling she was getting walked again, but that’s exactly why we have Brielle behind her,” Golden Tornado coach Cody Spotts said. “If you don’t throw to Bibs, you have to throw to Brielle. That’s a tough one-two.”
KHS (25-7) will next face Herbert Hoover late Wednesday in another elimination game.
Root’s winning knock came off PikeView (23-9) pitcher Shelby Maddox, who threw every inning of all three Panther state tournament contests.
“We wanted to show everybody that we belong here our first time here,” Panthers’ coach Steve Compton said. “We had a solid tournament. I’m proud of them. We did well and represented our school well.”
Felton singled and scored to give the Golden Tornado the first run.
PikeView countered in the top of the second to get even, but fell behind again in that inning following back-to-back singles
The Golden Tornado started freshman Sophie Lambka at pitcher, but she was lifted in the third in favor of Leighton Johnson after Maddox hit a line drive that deflected off Lambka’s foot.
“Leighton is our upperclassman and our ace, but Sophie has been fantastic this year as a freshman,” Spotts said. “Unfortunately she caught one right off the foot. Her status for tonight’s game is to be determined. We have the confidence her, but we were trying to save Leighton’s arm a little bit for innings tonight, so we’ll just have to adjust.”
Despite PHS scoring twice in an inning highlighted by Emma Compton’s double, Johnson settled in as her outing progressed. With PikeView in front 3-2 in the fourth, Johnson got out of a jam by striking out Emma Weiss.
“A lot of times, it’s about who gets a timely hit or makes that costly error,” Compton said.
That set the stage for Felton, who led off the fifth with a triple and scored on a productive out from Root to knot the affair at 3.
Johnson retired the side in order in the sixth and overcame an error to keep PikeView from scoring in the seventh, allowing the Golden Tornado to then rely on the heart of their order to deliver, which is precisely what it did.
“We’ve been in a lot of close games against good competition,” Spotts said, “and that’s what’s prepped us for this moment.”
Explore the peaks and valleys of the Allegheny Range on two wheels
(Photo: Pocahontas County)
Some places are just made for biking. Start with just-right rolling terrain, add diverse riding surfaces from singletrack to country roads, and top it all off with epic scenery. That’s Pocahontas County, West Virginia, home to the rolling Allegheny Mountains and shady trails of the Monongahela National Forest and rightfully known as Nature’s Mountain Playground. It’s a place with accessible outdoor adventure for all ages and vibrant mountain towns that ground the experience in welcoming rural communities. And when you explore from the seat of a bike, you’ll go at the perfect pace for taking it all in, with long-distance rail trails, scenic highways, and world-class mountain biking terrain to guide your way.
Ride the Rails
A day of cycling along Pocahontas County’s river trails is one of the most immersive ways to experience the quiet splendor of the Alleghenies. Get a taste along the iconic Greenbrier River Trail, which meanders alongside its namesake waterway for 78 miles through lush forests and thriving wildlife habitats. Go the full distance or take it in sections. With a grade of less than 1% throughout, the trail is accessible to most riders—gravel and mountain bikes or e-bikes are recommended—while unique features like its 37 bridge crossings and two 400-plus-foot tunnels make it more than just a simple river ride. The same can be said of the 22-mile West Fork Trail, a remote route that offers plenty of opportunities for hiking and fishing side quests. E-bikes are not permitted on this trail since it’s within the Monongahela National Forest.
Pocahontas County Trails
Sample the Singletrack
Beginner, expert, or somewhere in between? No matter where you are on the mountain biking spectrum, Pocahontas County has trails for you. Novice riders can experience a truly unique outing at the Green Bank Observatory, home to the world’s largest steerable radio telescope, along with 15-plus miles of beginner and intermediate trails. If you’re looking to progress your skills, head to the Mower Basin Trail System, a haven of beginner and intermediate riding where shady singletrack opens to rolling meadows and panoramic views along 12-plus miles of stacked loop trails. Mower Basin is also a conservation success story—once cleared for strip mining, the area is now a budding home for both red spruce trees and outdoor recreation.
Mower Basin Trails
Meanwhile, the downhill mecca of Snowshoe Mountain Resort plays host to nearly 40 trails and 1,500 vertical feet of lift-serviced riding, offering everything from easy freeride trails to technical descents and park-focused features. Known as one of the East’s best mountain bike parks, Snowshoe also offers access to its own backcountry trail system.
Snowshoe Mountain Resort Trails
Country Roads
When it comes to road riding, the jewel of Pocahontas County is the Highland Scenic Highway. This 43-mile National Scenic Byway is the kind of road that cyclists dream of. This low-traffic route climbs from 2,325 feet to more than 4,500, delivering challenging terrain and expansive views of some of the most remote reaches of the Allegheny Range along the way.
And while all cycling is great in Nature’s Mountain Playground, gravel riders are especially spoiled. That’s because the Mon Forest Towns Partnership has put together an extensive collection of gravel routes throughout the Monongahela National Forest, with 60-plus rides ranging from casual day adventures to serious multiday bikepacking trips. An overnight or all-day ride in Pocahontas County is an ideal way to experience one of the country’s most rugged and remote landscapes, fittingly curated by those who call it home.
Pocahontas County Convention & Visitors Bureau (PCCVB), located in West Virginia, promotes Nature’s Mountain Playground, where unspoiled landscapes, rich heritage, and year-round outdoor recreation create meaningful visitor experiences. Through strategic marketing and partnerships, PCCVB supports sustainable tourism that strengthens local communities while preserving the region’s natural beauty and cultural legacy.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) – West Virginia Virtual Academy celebrated its second graduating class Tuesday at the Clay Center.
The ceremony featured a keynote speech and performance from West Virginia native and season six winner of America’s Got Talent’ Landau Eugene Murphy Jr., where he set out to inspire the class.
The class graduated 140 students, with eight earning a Promise Scholarship and 26 intending to attend college in the fall.
The academy’s director Doug Cipoletti said the virtual learning is about more than sitting behind a screen.
“Then we provide this [ceremony] where kids can actually come together and meet one another and build those relationships,” Cipoletti said. “So yes, we’re a virtual school, but there’s a lot more to it than just being behind a computer and I think that really shows today.”
West Virginia Virtual Academy is a K-12 school.
Copyright 2026 WSAZ. All rights reserved.
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