Warning: Watch where you campaign

CLARKSBURG, W. Va. — Early voting may offer candidates the chance to drive up turn-out among their faithful, but it also carries a warning: Watch where you campaign.

David McKinley, the Republican nominee for the House seat in West Virginia’s 1st district, had been stumping on the third floor of the Harrison County courthouse here on Thursday when he was politely informed that his campaign stop was also a polling place; district residents were casting ballots two floors below.

“Whoops,” said a member of McKinley’s entourage, who quickly recalled that first lady Michelle Obama caused a stir last week when she touted the Democratic agenda at a polling place in Chicago after casting an early ballot. McKinley had been in the courthouse for about an hour, going into offices and greeting employees.

After the warning, McKinley abruptly removed the campaign sticker he was wearing and stashed away his handouts. He introduced himself to a few more courthouse employees, but he kept the politicking out of the conversations. “I don’t want to do something that’s inappropriate,” he said. 

McKinley wondered aloud whether his opponent, Mike Oliverio, would try to make an issue out of the misstep, in a close race that could be decided by a few hundred votes.

A few minutes later, McKinley left the courthouse and retreated to the safer grounds of a coffee shop down the street.