A funny thing happened when they counted the votes from the May 2010 Primary Election in Lincoln County. Several candidates had an inordinate number of absentee votes.
County Commissioner Thomas Ramey was trailing challenger Phoebe Harless by 95 votes until the absentee ballots were added. Then, miraculously, Ramey jumped ahead of Harless by nearly 500 votes.
The same thing happened in the circuit clerk’s race. Incumbent Charles Brumfield was leading challenger Jerry Bowman, the county sheriff at the time, by 232 votes. But thanks to a four to one edge in early and absentee ballots, Bowman won by almost 300 votes.
Lincoln County Clerk Donald Whitten’s race wasn’t as close, but he still had 537 absentee votes compared with 35 for his closest opponent.
When questions were raised, Whitten, the county’s chief election officer, held a bizarre press conference where one of his deputies read a prepared statement claiming that the high number of absentee ballots “was an encouraging sign that the democratic process was alive and well.”
That, of course, was laughable.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office and the West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office started investigating. They figured out pretty quickly what had happened.
Whitten, Bowman and Ramey ginned up votes for themselves (and other favored candidates on their slate) by rigging the absentee voting system. The voters recruited by the three did not have a valid reason for voting absentee, so the conspirators just made up something.
And, of course, those absentee votes were cast in favor of three.
Whitten and Bowman pleaded guilty earlier this year. They’ll be sentenced later this month. Bowman could get up to ten years, while Whitten faces five years. Ramey pleaded guilty Wednesday. He faces five years in jail.
Ramey, interestingly, was once an outspoken critic of the Lincoln County political machine. He tried to bring attention to the shenanigans, but somewhere along the line—perhaps when he was appointed to the county commission—he became part of the problem.
Unfortunately, this election scandal is just the latest in the sordid history of Lincoln County politics. For years, the political factions passed out cash to precinct captains who then dispersed throughout the county to buy votes.
Occasionally, some of the scofflaws were caught and sent to prison, but others took their places. And a few just kept turning up. Former Lincoln County Assessor Jerry Weaver pleaded guilty in 2005 to vote fraud, served a year in prison, and was then rehired by the assessor’s office.
Amazingly, Weaver announced earlier this year that he was going to run for sheriff in Lincoln County. Only after his decision brought statewide attention did he change his mind.
The offices of U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin and Secretary of State Natalie Tennant deserve credit for rooting through the political muck in Lincoln County. Additionally, Nitro attorney Harvey Peyton, who represented two of the candidates who came out on the losing end after the vote fixing, helped uncover the wrongdoing.
It’s often said that political bosses and election rigging are just a way of life in Lincoln County. And, given the history, it’s easy to understand why many folks there have a fatalist attitude about politics.
We can only hope that after this latest investigation, the future will finally be different.