…….Early voting is but an infant in our long West Virginia history of elections. The first election was in 1863 and elections were held every year. That would be changed to every two years when we established a legislature with two-year terms. The first early voting took place in 2002 when the legislature amended the election law to allow it. Voters were skeptical at first. Only 4.3% of voters took advantage. How that has changed. Barb Ross of the election office told me 15 voters had already cast their votes in the first 45 minutes of the first day of early voting.
……… Voters loved it. Government was becoming attuned to their schedules which didn’t necessarily mean being available to cast their votes on election day. Oh, we had the absentee ballot. But you had to know ahead of time that you were going to be unavailable on election day and apply by a deadline. My first experience with absentee ballots was the election when the candidates for Sheriff were Bill Webster, Frank Rocchio, Ted Dragisich Alex Stakias, Joe Manypenny and I believe Harold Lassan. The kids’ Dad had been experiencing excruciating pain from a back injury for a year. He was only 30 and we finally found a neurosurgeon in Pittsburgh to remove 3 disks and fuse his spine,
………..We were a political family and this particular election had both Dad and brother-in-law Bill Webster on the ballot. Dad was pretty much a given, but Bill not so much. Experienced politico Joe Manypenny warned my Dad about the consequences of Bill entering the race. “Bill and I will split up the vote above the Kings Creek Bridge and Rocchio will win,” Joe predicted.
………..Every Sunday Dad came to visit the kids often taking them to Green Valley Dairy for ice cream. The kids’ Dad always maintained my Dad did not fully embrace the idea of him as his son-in-law, but I always told him he was being too sensitive.
………..As we told Dad about Alan’s impending surgery, he immediately had a look of extreme concern on his face and Alan had a fleeting thought that maybe John D. did care about. “Oh no, that’s awful,” said Dad. “It’s too late to vote him absentee!”
……….In a political family you never lose sight of your first priority: winning. The end result was Alan’s surgery was a success, but he did not vote in that election. Bill’s time to be Sheriff had yet to come. Joe Manypenny’s prediction was right on the money. Bill and Joe split the vote in northern Hancock. Frank Rocchio became Sheriff.
……….The legislation authorizing early voting was initially for 15 days, but it was shortened to 10 later. The primary site was the Courthouse, but County Clerks could establish other sites for a period of five days.
………All the rules applied like a “no campaign paraphernalia” within 300 feet of the poling place. That meant no cars with signs could drop off voters. No candidate could stand in the courthouse or outside and chat with voters. It changed the way strategists conducted elections. No more “peaking” on election day. In a perfect world all the people that were voting for you had already voted at the close of early voting. The world and elections are not perfect.
……That was the climate Mountaineer Racetrack, Resort & Casino was operating in when we faced the local referendum on table games. While the enabling legislation had been passed in the Legislative Session, a local referendum needed to be passed with a 60% majority. This was the final and most crucial steps toward becoming a full-fledged casino. It was unwieldy for sure. Handling 134 legislators was a lot easier than voters who may or may not even bother to vote. We knew the anti -gambling faction would be sure to vote. Pro gambling voters… not so sure. We also knew that getting every jockey, trainer, horse owner, etc. to vote was a challenge, Those individuals are often transient as they move from track to track. For this election, however, they needed to call West Virginia home and our first challenge was to get them registered as such.
…………President & CEO Ted Arneault was being urged by his Board of Directors to hire an out-of-state big hitter, John Brabender, to manage the campaign. The County Commissioners at the time, Jeff Davis, Mike Swartzmiller and Dan Greathouse brought a wealth of political expertise to the table and said there was only one person who knew the county, had the organizational and political expertise needed: ME
…….And, so I put together a campaign that at times was unorthodox. We got the name of every employee. We didn’t hire workers, but used our own employees to register and go door-to-door in their own neighborhoods. Ted Arneault would show up at every meeting, night spot, or place where there were 10 people to use his formidable charm to urge people to vote for table games.
…….Crucial to my plan was getting every person who worked at Mountaineer to early vote. In a carefully thought out plan, I rented a bus. It had a magnetic sign that simply said Courthouse. I established times (morning and afternoon) when the bus would pickup employees and deliver them to the courthouse door to vote. Designated pickup spots were established and departments were given a time and a day to vote. Employees were given time off to vote and yes, that’s legal.
………What could go wrong? I had assigned Shannon the task of riding the bus to the courthouse and making sure there were no hiccups. She had about 30 employees in a line which snaked around the building when a Sheriff’s deputy appeared; looked the line over; and subsequently lost it. He was not in favor of gambling. He took out his gun and started waving it as he went up and down the line pointing it at our employees and threatening to shoot anyone who voted for table gaming.
…….In her sweet and low key manner, Shannon went in the Courthouse and advised those in charge that they might want to bring that deputy inside. The deputy was dispatched to the Sheriff’s office. The employees wanted to call it a day. One of them, the administrative aide to the CFO had a panic attack right there in that line. Shannon called me. “They came to vote and they need to vote before they get back on that bus. Tell them I’m calling the Sheriff and they won’t be bothered again,” I said.
………They all voted before they got back on the bus. (Of course the alternative was walking back to Mountaineer.) And, I called the Sheriff who not only was a Republican but not in favor of gambling. He already knew of the situation and his terse response was “I’ve already taken care of it.”
……..The fire had been put out.
……..Or, so I thought. 30 minutes later I was in my office feeling pretty smug when I looked up to see Teddy Dragisich leaning against one side of my door and Ted Arneault on the other side. “Dodged a bullet on that one, huh,” I quipped.
………Teddy did not have his proverbial grin on his face and Ted’s eyes were not twinkling, a certain sign something was amiss.
………”What the ****! You got the brother of the President of the Democratic Women fired. She will make sure none of her women and all of their relatives and friends vote against table games. And, he lost his retirement. What were you thinking?” said Teddy in his most gentile tone. ( It’s hard to think clearly when a deputy is threatening to shoot your voter BEFORE that person votes. If he had shot them after, the vote would count, but that’s another Hancock County election story.)
………”I was thinkin if I sent 30 alive people to vote, I better bring 30 live ones back cause they were in the middle of their shift.”
………. My two favorite cut-ups didn’t laugh. This was not good. I may have had an administrative assistant who was still holding on to the bag they put over her head when she had her panic attack “just in case.” and I thought about borrowing it.
……..The damage control plan now consisted of me and our attorney, Dan Guida, going to pay a visit to the Sheriff to plea for the deputy’s job back. Neither Teddy or Ted could go because the Sheriff had an aversion to them both, Danny Guida would go to make sure I didn’t make a bad situation worse.
……..The Sheriff wouldn’t give. He recited all the election rules that had been broken not to mention brandishing a firearm. I was now in the unique position of defending the deputy using terms like “he was just kidding,” and “he has a weird sense of humor.” The Sheriff being of the opposite party was adamant, but he did relent on the retirement. I heard the deputy harbored no ill will, but I was forever forbidden to contact him so I wouldn’t know.
……..The buses continued. The incident became legend as each employee added a little more to the story. And, we won the table game election. The road to victory is a little rocky.
