Elections……they bring out the worst in us. Rarely, do they bring out the best. While our focus is on the National race for President and the search for corruption in that race, West Virginia has its own long history of dirty tricks in elections and Hancock County is no stranger to maneuvering votes to benefit a chosen candidate. And, the chosen candidate was often not backed by peers, but organized crime.

…….Yep folks, right here in Hancock County back in the day when the media had yet to put a bright light on the machinations of elections and the West Virginia Legislture had yet to pass Ethics Legislation. And, I observed elections and heard stories told to me by my Dad that date back to 1944 when he was first elected. I also read “Don’t Buy Another Vote, I Can’t Afford a Landslide,” a book that focuses on political corruption. The title was taken from a remark Joe Kennedy made in a speech as advice given to his son, John Kennedy. The book was written by Allen Loughry, a former aide to Gov. Caperton, who became a State Supreme Court Judge. Ironically, he too was indicted on charges of misspending the State’s money.

……..As a kid I was intrigued by election day. Back then you paid workers to drive voters to the polls. The 300 foot rule wasn’t in effect yet, so you could take them right to the door where candidates and little munchkins like me could hand you a card and say “please vote for my, Daddy.” I learned very early the art of rejection when a mean voter took the card and threw it on the ground. I also learned that holding your tongue is soooo important when my sister at age 13 was handing out cards and when she handed a voter my Dad’s card he called my Dad some choice words.

…….Marsha was crying when we picked her up, but instead of offering sympathy my Dad asked her “you didn’t say anything back did you?” She reported that she had called the man a few choice words. Dad explained that in his capacity as Justice of the Peace, he had attached the man’s wages just a few days before which was why the man was angry, “but, in four years he’ll forget about and maybe vote for me. But he won’t forget the way YOU talked to him in four years and I’ve lost his vote forever.” Ever after, when faced with anger from anyone, we were trained to say “I’m sorry you feel that way.” That training served me well, not only in 11 years in the Legislature, but in my career in public relations.

………As I wrote my column on separation Church and politics, I was reminded that one of the worst infractions of that rule took place in the 1940’s when Father Olsweski, long-time pastor of Immaculate Conception told everyone attending 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. mass they needed to vote for John D. Herron saying he wasn’t a Catholic, but his family was and he gave a lot of money to the Church.

……….Stories of missing ballot boxes, voting machines that were tampered, and terms like daisy wheel and the lever. In one election. a ballot box was misplaced resulting in Lou Smoleski serving as sheriff for six weeks until a Court ruling resulted in Ralph Patrick being the winner and serving the rest of the term.

……Talk of putting a matchstick under a lever resulting in a vote not registering was common. It was an inside job by a poll worker and when the polls closed those matchsticks would be pulled out and the lever pulled for the chosen candidate. In the election where Bill Webster was elected Sheriff, we had a legal affidavit drawn up for each of the thirty some precincts that named someone as Webster’s legal representative and permitted that representative access to the polls to take the totals from just the Sheriff’s race off the machine. It was a little known law, but it worked.

……..When I ran I employed the same vote tabulation practice. Getting thirty some affidavits was easy, finding 30 volunteers was not. I had to employ my kids and one of Doug’s favorite stories is when he was a law student at Washington & Lee. He had been assigned the Point Pleasant precinct and knocked on the door as soon as they closed and said he was here to get his Mom’s totals. The poll workers had been doing their jobs since Christopher Columbus sighted America; said they had never heard of such a law; and denied him entrance. Doug knew he was on the right side of the law and was not to be deterred. He demanded the poll worker call the County Clerk. She refused. He persevered and was relentless all the time with his foot in the door. She relented and called the Clerk, where she was told Doug was correct and could get the tally. What a victory for soon-to-be lawyer. What an embarrassment for the poll workers. Doug got the tally and with a jaunty good bye walked out the door. Only the door was to a closet. As Doug tells it he stayed in the closet for a few minutes trying to think of how to exit gracefully until he opened the door where all eyes were upon him and simply said “That’s a closet.”

……As he got in the car and picked up the car phone to report in, he said “Mom’ll be worried I took so long. She’ll think something happened.” Shannon knew her Mom better. “She won’t care. She’ll just want to know how many votes she got.” She was right.

……When JFK came into West Virginia, he was assured that the Counties could be delivered for a certain price. In “Don’t buy another vote, I can’t afford a landslide” Allan Loughry describes how the County Chairmen Raymond Chafin (nephew of Anse “Devil” Hatfield) was first given $2,500 by Hubert Humphrey’s people. Chafin said it wasn’t enough. Chafin was called a few days prior to the Primary and told to bring bodyguards with him to the airport to retrieve “something to work with.” According to Chafin, it was raining and Kennedy’s men handed two sopping wet bags full of cash over to him and Bus Perry.

…..In an ironic twist, Chafin had told the campaign the County needed about $35. He meant $3,500.0 and not the $35,000.00 the County received,

……According the book, Chafin said “Nobody will ever know where that money came from. Never! But I’ll tell you what we did with it. We bought votes with it! Regardless of what you want to believe, that’s the way real politics works. We used up all the money from the bags and won the dang election. It takes large amounts of money to sweep an election. We had it, all right.” Chafin recalls traveling to McDowell, Wyoming, Mingo and Boone Counties to deliver the Kennedy campaign money to pay for election day opportunities.

…….It wasn’t until I served in the Legislature that the boys down South explained to me what those opportunities were. Back then, paper ballots were used. The party ran a “daisy wheel” in each car that was taking voters to the poll. Each car would start the day with a blank paper ballot which they marked for the chosen candidates. They gave it to the voter who then voted it and had to give them a clean ballot to receive their money or liquor. The clean ballot was then marked and the process continued throughout election day.

……So many stories from throughout the State come to mind. The Ethics Legislation in nineties cleaned up a lot of elections and the fear of indictments that came down in the Nineties may have had a chilling effect on others. I’m praying for an honest, violence-free election Nov. 5, but a lot of memories of past elections will be remembered as I await the outcome.