West Virginia attempts to end voter fraud
 By installing new voting machines and quickly correcting registration misinformation, West Virginia's Secretary of State is attempting to clean up her state's record of voter fraud and Election Day mishaps before and since she took over the office in 2004.
Sarah Bailey, press secretary for Betty Ireland, West Virginia's Secretary of State, told RAW STORY that "West Virginia historically has had problems – specifically, vote buying. We've worked hard to update our voting system and most of our counties now use optical scan paper ballots or electronic voting machines with paper trail verification."
According to a poll commissioned by The State Journal, 69 percent of registered voters in West Virginia believe vote buying happens either "very often" or "somewhat often" and about seven out of ten West Virginians feel corruption happens in political races.
In an attempt to stave off criticism of voter fraud allegations, which have plagued West Virginia in the past, Secretary of State Ireland was asked by a metronews reporter if she feared following in the footsteps of notorious Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris. "We do not want to see Betty Ireland live on Fox, CNN, you name it... we don't want to be there," laughed Ireland.
Ireland's predecessor, Ken Hechler, had been the focus of several investigations over widespread charges of voting fraud - including vote buying and lost ballots - throughout his tenure as Secretary of State.
There's enough smoke from the fire of election corruption in West Virginia that one man wrote a 623-page book about it.
Dr. Allen L. Loughry II authored Don't Buy Another Vote, I Won't Pay for a Landslide, which is based on ten years of researching West Virginia's political and social history.
Loughry told The Tyler Star News, "The people who proudly call themselves Mountaineers have never been truly free from the depredations of political and financial corruption."
A nonpartisan in the battle to reform politics in his home state, Loughry says, "If someone is a filthy, corrupt scoundrel stealing state money from the good people of this state, then it means absolutely nothing to me whether he or she is Democrat or Republican, as corruption should not be protected by the veil of either party."
In a special election over table games in 2007, Ireland's office came under fire when poorly trained poll workers counted errors and failed to properly secure the ballots. The initiative passed – though narrowly.
Only days before the primary, there was a controversy in West Virginia over political messages by robo-calls and in mass mailings from the group "Women's Voices, Women Vote" that were allegedly misleading thousands of Virginia voters, specifically single female voters.
The robo-calls – featuring the voice of a fictional black man named Lamont Williams – made some listeners think that there were either problems with their registration or that there was still time to register for the primary this Tuesday despite the fact that the calls and mailings were sent out after the new registration date had passed on April 22.
"People who have never voted can still register, but they won't be eligible to cast a ballot in the primary. I do not want registered voters to be confused by this mailing," said Ireland in a May 8 press release intended to correct the misinformation.
The group's ensuing apology did not seem to help quell the lingering distaste of West Virginia's voter fraud problems that subsequently led Ireland's staff to create an Election Fraud Unit, complete with a downloadable Election Complaint Form on the Secretary of State's website.
Power outages and poorly trained poll staffers complicate West Virginia's attempt to clean up its voting record; however, says Ireland, "the weather for Tuesday is expected to be fantastic."
Sarah Bailey reported to RAW STORY that there have only been a few "normal voting problems today."
She adds, "Out of 1,894 precincts, all is going well. We've had the usual problems. A couple of precincts didn't open on time and some voting machines were running out of batteries, so we dispatched the technicians and got them running again."
Bailey was expecting a higher turnout for today's primary because "the early voting numbers were historic; nearly three times more than in the '04 and '06 primaries for a total of 76,702 ballots cast, which includes absentee ballots."
However, Bailey said, "Turnout today is normal; a steady trickle. It will still probably be higher than the normal 40% of West Virginians who vote in the primaries but not what we expected."
Bailey credits her boss, Betty Ireland, for improvements that led to a huge increase in early voting and a slightly higher primary turnout.
"All the improvements we've made to assure voting accuracy is paying off. You can't stuff an electronic ballot box!" Bailey laughed.
However, Ireland has also been the subject of controversy.
The first Republican elected to her position in West Virginia, Ireland drew criticism for printing her name on more than 250 coffee mugs and distributing them to county clerks and election workers at a cost of $1,763, charged to taxpayers.
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