The Secretary of State’s Office agrees that primary voting in some Mingo County precincts was characterized by a lack of compliance with election laws.
That conclusion resulted from a review of primary election balloting that followed a challenge by incumbent Senator Chandler Swope, who lost to Mingo County teacher Craig Hart. Swope withdrew his challenge this week, saying the burden of proof to have results in entire precincts discounted would have been difficult to achieve.
Nevertheless, the Secretary of State’s Office, which oversees elections, identified enough discrepancies that it has promised to better train poll workers in Mingo County while also making the enhanced training is available across the state.
“From what was uncovered during the investigation and discovery phase, voters were allowed to select their party’s ballots at the voting machine itself, whereas it should have been a poll worker that made those selections,” Deak Kersey, chief of staff for the Secretary of State, said today on MetroNews’ “Talkline.”
“What we’ve concluded is there needs to be a little more reeducation at the poll worker level. The county’s election materials, our election materials, the training materials that are provided include the correct instructions. Enough poll workers across the county didn’t get the memo, so we need to focus on reeducation focus efforts heading into the 2026 election.”
Swope lost a primary re-election bid to Hart in the district that includes Mingo, McDowell and Mercer counties along with part of Wayne. Swope got 4,384 votes. That put him behind Hart, a Lenore resident who got 4,847 votes. Another candidate, former Delegate Eric Porterfield, wound up with 2,633 votes.
Swope filed an official challenge, wanting to know more about what happened in Mingo County voting precincts where Hart received 2,152 votes, Swope got 364 votes and Porterfield got 344 votes. The Swope challenge suggested that unusually high Republican turnout in some precincts resulted from registered Democrats who voted with Republican ballots.
A statement filed this week on Swope’s behalf indicated the review wound up finding “numerous irregularities in the Mingo County primary election that resulted in an impossible number of Republican votes being cast.”
Precinct 75, for example, tallied 93 registered Republicans and 58 independent voters who received a Republican ballot, which should have totaled 151 Republican ballots submitted. But the county instead reported 187 Republican ballots submitted for the precinct.
The review also determined:
- that poll workers in some precincts did not indicate the voter’s party registration on poll books slips
- that in several precincts, election workers allowed voters to choose their own ballot, incorrectly believing they were not permitted to know the voter’s registration. “Thus, rather than preparing the correct ballot for the voter before the voter entered the voting booth, some Ballot Commissioners allowed voters to enter the booth and choose a party’s ballot themselves.”
Swope’s challenge ultimately could have resulted in all the votes of some precincts being cast aside. However, his legal team determined that burden would have been very challenging. Swope and Hart jointly submitted a proposed order to dismiss the election challenge.
The Secretary of State’s Office included its own statement in that filing, saying “a review of the election records indicates a lack of compliance with the election laws that pertain to the proper receipt and procedure for facilitating voting at the precinct level in a primary election. This lack of compliance existed in several precincts throughout Mingo County.”
The office continued by saying, “Errors in a small number of precincts on a statewide scale is understandable. However, when numerous voters were able to cast a ballot for a political party with which they were not affiliated, such is against the law and falls below the election administration standards this Office expects of County elections.”
Kersey on statewide radio today said the law firms and candidates “uncovered what appeared to be a lack of understanding at the poll worker level as opposed to a concerted effort by a small group of people with an outcome in mind.”