Voting for state Senate is a mess in Mingo County as candidate’s name was initially left off ballots

Right in the middle of early voting, the Secretary of State’s office has had to get involved with a situation where a Democratic nominee for state Senate was left off ballots in Mingo County.

The problem was swiftly corrected once it was identified, but that still meant that almost 700 people who voted early in Mingo County received ballots that did not reflect all of the candidates in a hotly contested state Senate race.

The situation is under an early review to determine what went wrong, but close observers generally have described a communication gap between the county clerk’s office and statewide election entities about who bore responsibility to provide names of candidates for statewide or multi-county races. That confusion was exacerbated when the original Democratic candidate was dropped from contention over a failure to properly submit campaign finance reports and then another Democratic candidate was subbed in.

From there, elections officials at all levels appear not to have noticed in a timely manner that Democratic candidate Jeff Disibbio did not appear on Mingo ballots.

“Was it an error on my part, or an error on the vendor’s part? Or whose fault was the error on?” Mingo County Clerk Larry “Yogi” Croaff asked aloud in an interview with West Virginia Watch. 

Croaff told West Virginia Watch that notice of the error has been sent to people who voted with absentee ballots. Absentee voters may submit a corrected ballot.

Deak Kersey, chief of staff for the Secretary of State, said the office was notified Monday morning that “the ballot didn’t contain the name of the candidate who was on the certified list our office sent down to Mingo.

“There’s a number of ways this could have occurred. From everything we’re hearing it was human error. But it’s a huge issue,” Kersey said this morning on MetroNews’ “Talkline.”

That district includes Mercer, Mingo and McDowell counties as well as parts of Wayne.

The prior officeholder from the district was Senator Chandler Swope, a Republican from Mercer County, who lost a contested primary election that was itself contested over questions about whether Democrats had been allowed to request and receive Republican ballots in Mingo. A review did not uncover enough irregularities to tip the race to Swope, but there were enough errors in the primary for the Secretary of State’s office to promise enhanced training for poll workers.

The Republican winner of the primary election was Craig Hart, a Mingo County school teacher who has a campaign website advocating against digital currency and “forced vax” and in favor of demolishing the deep state and respecting God’s rainbow. Hart’s campaign website also says guns save lives.

The Democratic candidate for Senate in the district had been Randall Fowler but because his campaign did not submit timely financial filings to the Secretary of State’s Office he was removed from contention in August.

That gave the state Democratic Party in late summer the opening to name someone else — Disibbio, president of the Chamber of Commerce of the Two Virginias in the Bluefield area. His deep community ties and relationship with the business community in the largest population center in the district made Democrats optimistic about his chances.

The switch from Fowler to Disibbio was an apparent factor in the foul-up that led to Disibbio’s name being absent from Mingo ballots.

“This is not a conspiracy. It appears that, rather than relying on information directly from the Mingo County Clerk’s election officials, the state’s elections contractor made assumptions about the candidates for state senate based on the results of the primary election. As a result, Randy Fowler — who won the primary — was included, and Jeff  Disibbio, who did not become a candidate until briefly before the ballots were finalized, was left off,” said attorney Ryan Donovan in a statement representing the Mingo County Commission.

“Voters can be confident that our election system is working exactly as it should — not without human error, but with integrity. As soon as the mistake was identified, Mingo officials moved quickly to correct it and every voter will be given the opportunity to cast a ballot for the candidate of his or her choice.”

Jeff Disibbio

Disibbio, in a statement, drew a throughline between the irregularities in the primary election to the current situation.

“This latest development will also directly benefit Mr. Hart. It is difficult to conclude that these two actions were simple mistakes.  A more likely explanation is that there are Mingo County officials who are willing to do whatever it takes to deprive Mercer County of a state Senate seat and transfer that seat to Mingo County,” Disibbio said.

“I will be taking all necessary actions available to ensure we have a free and fair election for State Senate throughout all the counties of District 6, including Mingo County. I am taking this opportunity to encourage all Mercer County voters and all voters in District 6, regardless of party, to support my election for State Senate. We must take a stand to protect and maintain the cornerstone of our democracy, free and fair elections.”

Hart, the Republican in the Senate race, responded.

Craig Hart

“My opponent sounds just like his liberal friends, Kamala and Biden. Like Kamala, he was hand-picked without getting a single vote in the primary and just like Kamala he complains about an innocent oversight in the coalfields as if it’s a ‘threat to our democracy,'” Hart said.

The state Democratic Party blasted the most recent turn of events in Mingo County.

Mike Pushkin

“The recent mistake by the Mingo County Clerk’s office, which failed to include Jeff Disibbio on the ballot for Senate District 6, undermines that fundamental right. Mistakes like this rob voters of their chance to reflect their will at the ballot box, and it’s unacceptable,” said state Democratic Party Chairman Mike Pushkin in a statement distributed by the party.

“While mistakes happen, it’s crucial that immediate steps are taken to correct this and ensure that voters in Senate District 6 can vote for the candidates who rightfully qualified to be on their ballot. Elections should be about the people’s voice, not about administrative errors.”

Kersey, speaking on “Talkline,” said “this is a big issue.”

“We’re still getting evidence and records from the county,” Kersey said. “They’re working with us to get that to us timely. We’re in close communication, and we’re monitoring the issue.”

Bottom line, through the ballot review period, “they missed it.”

He said 678 people voted early without the right candidate on the ballot.

“The ones who might have wanted to vote for that candidate didn’t have the opportunity. But there’s no way to fix it when you vote in person because those ballots once they go in the ballot box are anonymous. Your name’s not on it, there’s no unique number that we can tie the voter to the ballot. The constitution protects your right to privacy.

“Once the ballot is in the ballot box, there’s nothing you can do about it. So really what happens is, you have to wait and see what happens. If the race is decided by that margin or less, it’s a very valid reason for the Democratic candidate to challenge the outcome. Interestingly, that challenge doesn’t go to court. It goes to the state Senate itself. That’s in the state Constitution and election laws.”

Ultimately, senators could have a hearing “to determine whether or not the error was enough to throw out the ballots from early voting, to throw out the whole election or to come up with some other remedy. But right now we just have to wait to see how the election goes.”





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