MINGO COUNTY, WV (WOWK) – The American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia has taken legal action after an error was discovered on some Mingo County ballots last week.
Nearly 700 early voters in Mingo County received ballots that listed the wrong candidate for West Virginia’s Sixth Senatorial District. Democratic candidate Jeff DiSibbio’s name had been replaced with a candidate who won the May primary but was later disqualified.
The original sample ballot shows that “Randy Fowler” was incorrectly listed as the Democratic candidate. According to the WV Secretary of State websiteDiSibbio has registered for the race on August 20, 2024.
“This is not a partisan issue, it is a ballot integrity issue,” said ACLU-WV attorney Nick Ward. “Now more than ever, we must ensure that our elections are fair and that every individual’s vote is counted, regardless of who they vote for or how likely that candidate is to win. This right is fundamental to our democracy.”
According to Mingo County Clerk Larry “Yogi” Croaff, his office discovered the problem on Monday, October 28, 2024 and immediately suspended early voting. They also contacted the WV Secretary of State’s office and the company Election Systems & Software to resolve the issue.
According to Croaff, the ballot issue has now been resolved and early voting resumed later that same afternoon.
“The races were decided by far fewer than 700 votes,” Ward said. “In a democracy, voters choose their leaders, not the other way around. “That is why we ask the court to order that the Mingo County Clerk do whatever is necessary to get this right and ensure that every eligible West Virginia voter can meaningfully exercise their right to vote in their community.”
Croaff said last week that the ballots with the error were not thrown out, but corrected ballots were sent to everyone who requested an absentee ballot, so anyone who wants to void their original ballot and change their vote can do so.
Voters who had already voted and mailed in or returned their mail-in ballots had the option to leave their vote unchanged; Follow the instructions on the corrected ballot, fill it out and return it. go to the Mingo County Courthouse in person to vote during early voting and have absentee ballots canceled; Or you can go to your district in person, cast your vote on election day and have your postal vote canceled.
Croaff noted that anyone who requested an absentee ballot but chose to vote in person had to cast a provisional ballot and bring any absentee ballots they received.
Those who had previously voted in person also had the opportunity to cast their vote again.
The ACLU-WV pointed out that the mix-up of Disibbio being removed from the ballot while Fowler remained on is not the first problem with the Mingo County vote this year.
Following the primary, several candidates filed a formal complaint with the West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office on Wednesday alleging voter irregularities in the primary. The three candidates told 13 News Voters they reached out to them and said Republicans and Democrats would not vote within their respective parties.
The court documents detailed several allegations of voter irregularities in Mingo County, including allowing voters to cast another party’s ballot despite being a member of one party or the other and two unaffiliated voters saying poll workers were “standing behind them and watching them.” when voting, what they did not allow”. give them all privacy.”
They also argued that an augment in Republican turnout in Mingo County from 2020 to 2024 shows that voters were “improperly given a choice in which primary they wanted to participate in.”
However, the Mingo County Clerk’s Office said there were no irregularities after the acquisition was completed.
