More than 100,000 West Virginians had already voted in the primary election as today's election day loomed, a number that dwarfs any other primary election in the 14-year history of West Virginia's early voting program.
Across the state's 55 counties, 100,962 people voted early, according to Secretary of State Natalie Tennant, while an additional 5,252 voted by absentee ballot, for a total of 106,214 ballots already cast.
That's nearly 9 percent of the approximately 1.2 million registered voters in West Virginia. It's also nearly eight times more than the number who voted early in the 2002 primary, the first year early voting was an option, although turnout is always lower in nonpresidential years, like 2002.
About half the ballots this year - 50.3 percent - have come from registered Democrats, according to numbers provided by Tennant's office. That's slightly higher than what might be expected, as about 47 percent of all registered voters are registered Democrats.
About 34 percent of early voters were registered Republicans, a number, as with the Democrats, that is higher than the about 30 percent of all registered voters who are registered Republicans.
Meanwhile, voters who don't identify with a party make up about 20 percent of the electorate, but only about 11 percent of early voters.
Those voters could have voted on either a Democratic or Republican ballot, and Tennant's office did not have data on which ballots unaffiliated voters chose.
While the numbers show a larger Democratic turnout, the gap is narrower than in past years, more evidence that West Virginia no longer is the Democratic stronghold it once was.
Prior to this year, the most early ballots cast in a primary election in West Virginia was in 2008, the last year the state saw two contested presidential primaries.
In 2008, 65,845 people voted early, according to Tennant - 38 percent less than have voted already this year.
In 2008, about 65 percent of early voters were registered Democrats, compared to the 50.3 percent this year. In 2008, 24 percent of early voters were registered Republicans, compared to the 34 percent this year.
There also is slightly more motivation for Democrats to vote in this year's primary than there is for Republicans.
Republicans have settled on their candidate for governor, Senate President Bill Cole.
Democrats, on the other hand, have a hotly contested three-way primary for governor among businessman Jim Justice (the front-runner), former U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin and state Senate Minority Leader Jeff Kessler.
Nationally, the presidential primaries appear likely to be won by Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, but in West Virginia, the contested campaign continues only on the Democratic side.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has led Clinton, the former secretary of state, in recent polls of West Virginia and continues to campaign here and nationally.
"We spend our entire campaign out there, telling people to get out to vote," Belinda Biafore, chairwoman of the state Democratic Party, said last week. "It's not about the candidate, at this point; it's about going out to vote."
Meanwhile, on the Republican side, Trump is the only candidate left standing, the only candidate who campaigned in West Virginia, and, to top it off, he told his supporters here to skip voting in the primary.
If Trump voters heed his advice, it is unlikely to hurt his campaign too much, but it could have a significant effect on other races.
The state Supreme Court race is a "nonpartisan" election that is, in fact, very partisan.
The voters whom Trump told to stay home are probably the ones who most likely would support Beth Walker, the preferred candidate of the state's Republican establishment.
As the election approached, pretenses of nonpartisanship faded away.
The Republican State Leadership Committee, a national group, has spent more than $2 million boosting Walker and bashing two of her opponents, Darrell McGraw and Bill Wooton. A group called Just Courts for WV, funded by trial lawyers, has spent nearly $500,000 bashing Walker.
Walker was scheduled to campaign Monday night with Cole and other Republican candidates.
And the state Republican Party, not exactly a "nonpartisan" actor, sent out a news release Monday bashing McGraw.
"I care that West Virginia has a fair court system and that the voices of the voters are heard," Conrad Lucas, chairman of the state Republican Party said last week. "Judicial races should be at the forefront of people's minds."
In 2012, a presidential year but one in which the primaries were essentially finished by the time West Virginia voted, 57,553 people voted early, only about half as many as have voted this year. In 2014 the number was 45,144 and, in 2010, it was 40,644.
"We know that West Virginians are excited about voting this year, with every race on the ballot except for U.S. Senate," Tennant said in a news release. "Early voting presents a great opportunity to fit voting into busy schedules, and I couldn't be happier with West Virginia's 2016 early voting numbers."
Polls will be open across the Mountain State today from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Reach David Gutman at david.gutman@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5119 or follow @davidlgutman on Twitter.