The state’s chief elections official’s office is “collecting evidence and records” about an error that led nearly 700 people in Mingo County to vote with incorrect ballots.
Jeff Disibbio, the Democratic candidate for the State Senate’s 6th District race, was excluded from the county ballot during part of early voting. On the ballot instead was Randy Fowler, who won the Democratic primary but was barred from running in the general election for failing to file campaign finance reports.
“We need to figure out what’s going on,” said Donald Kersey, chief of staff for the West Virginia Department of State West Virginia MetroNews’ Hoppy Kercheval Wednesday morning. “I think everyone down there has good intentions. I believe that everyone tries to make the most of what they have.
“These are big deals that impact not only candidates’ ability to get a fair shot, but also voters’ ability to vote for someone who is eligible and should be on the ballot. A huge deal,” he said.
Larry “Yogi” Croaff, county clerk in Mingo County, said Wednesday that he was informed of the error Monday by one of the county’s ballot-preparing vendors and that early voting had been suspended for two hours while ballots were processed have been corrected for future voters.
The latest voting error comes after about 200 Democrats were also found to have voted incorrectly Republican contest for the 6th District during the May primary election in Mingo County, Kersey said.
Croaff told West Virginia Watch Wednesday morning that notice of the error was sent to people who voted by absentee ballot. Postal voters can submit a corrected ballot.
People who voted early can also return to the courthouse and cast a provisional vote in the race if the error affected the way they voted, Croaff said. The county elections board will decide whether the vote should be counted. Provisional ballots are generally used when there are questions about a person’s eligibility to vote.
Kersey clarified to West Virginia Watch that there is no legal process for the Election Commission to count provisional ballots for voters who voted early in person. Under those circumstances, provisional ballots could not be counted if an early voter’s ballot was not challenged, he said.
“There is no way to fix the problem when voting in person because those ballots are anonymous once they go into the ballot box. Your name isn’t on it,” Kersey said on MetroNews. “…because the Constitution protects your secrecy and your right to privacy. So once those ballots are in the ballot box, there’s nothing we can do about it.”
As of Wednesday morning, only three people had called Croaff’s office about the issue, he said. None of the callers recognized the error themselves, he said.
“Since the news broke, the two things people have been saying are, ‘Was Babydog’s father affected or was Donald Trump affected?’ – Those are the only calls I get,” Croaff said. “And I tell them, ‘No, this race wasn’t affected.'”
Babydog, of course, is a bulldog and a political prop of West Virginia Governor Jim Justice, a Republican running for a U.S. Senate seat. In Mingo County, Republican voter registrations outnumber Democrats by almost 1,700according to the latest data from the State Department.
The Sixth Senate District includes Mercer, McDowell and Mingo counties and part of Wayne County. The election error did not appear to have affected any counties other than Mingo County, Kersey said.
Croaff said he didn’t know why the error occurred and was trying to figure it out.
“Was it a mistake on my part or a mistake on the part of the provider? Or whose fault was the mistake?”
Kersey told Kerchavel that Disibbio’s name was on the certified candidate list that the secretary of state’s office sent to Mingo County via email and certified mail. The county election board met to review the ballot. The board corrected another error on the ballot — omitting the name of an independent candidate — but missed that Fowler was listed as a Democrat instead of Disibbio.
“This is a big problem,” Kersey said. “Six hundred and seventy-eight people showed up to vote, and they didn’t have the right candidates on the ballot for the state Senate race.”
Kersey told Kerchavel that the office would have to decide whether to hold anyone accountable for the error. State law provides “remedial action” for officers who fail in their duties, he said.
“Here you had a panel of election commissioners, the three political party appointees and the county clerk himself who missed the error,” Kersey said. “So all sorts of things can happen, but right now we want to focus on making sure people understand that the bug was identified and reprogrammed within an hour and a half of us learning about it.”
Kersey said officials would have to wait and see the outcome of the election. If the race is decided with a margin of error of about 700 or less, that would be a “very good reason” for Democrats to challenge the result, he said. The challenge would go to the state Senate, according to state election laws.
In a statement on Tuesday said the state Democratic Party chairman that the party would “exploit all legal options to ensure that the integrity of our democratic process is maintained.” Disibbio said he will “take all necessary measures to ensure that we have free and fair State Senate elections in all District 6 counties, including Mingo County.”
“There would be a hearing by the state Senate to determine whether the error was sufficient to remove the ballots from early voting, throw out the entire election, or find another remedy,” Kersey said. “But for now we just have to wait and see how the election goes.”
