Washington County hires new assistant elections director
Washington County Salary Board last week hired Melanie R. Ostrander, 36, of Washington, as the new assistant director of elections.
She officially began her duties this week, but Ostrander was in the thick of things last week at election central in Courthouse Square.
Although she has been working at a bank for the past six years, she was deputy clerk in the Monongalia County election/registration office in Morgantown, W.Va., from January 2004 to June 2006.
A 1999 graduate of Washington High School, she earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from West Virginia University and a master’s of public administration degree from the university in 2005.
Ostrander succeeds Wesley Parry, who is working in the private sector.
The canvass board will be spending several days reviewing the results of the May 16 primary, tabulating write-in votes and checking voter registration information for 70 provisional ballots cast that day.
The salary board includes the county commissioners, who in most years are also the election board, and Controller Michael Namie.