DRUGS-FOR-VOTES SCHEME NOT SURPRISING TO MANY

KEOTA -- Trading drugs for votes may sound outlandish to some, but in
Keota, a town dubbed by one local as "Methville USA," the plot made perfect
sense. Keota had a local man with several felony charges in his past -- but
no convictions. Authorities allege he used an ample supply of
methamphetamine in hopes of buying votes for politicians he favored.

. Fraud suspect has court record

"It's been common knowledge, but proving the common knowledge is another
thing," Haskell County District Attorney Jim Bob Miller said.

Some residents gladly handed over their blank absentee ballots in exchange
for a small amount of meth or $20 cash, authorities said.

State Election Board Secretary Michael Clingman said he had never heard of
a drugs-for-votes scheme, although Haskell County is no stranger to
election fraud.

But Keota electrician Greg Seabolt, who helped expose the 2000 election
year scandal, said his county is ripe for such a trade.

"This is the biggest meth capital of Oklahoma, and that's not a lie,"
Seabolt said. "It's unreal, the problem they have down here."

The drugs-for-votes scheme may have operated for years before a two-year
investigation by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation brought it down.

The object of desire was the absentee ballot, which was allegedly bought
with drugs or money, then cast in favor of a preferred candidate.

Charged with conspiracy to commit a felony in the 2000 election are Eddy
Kay Copeman, 49, and his common-law wife, Romonia Blunt. Blunt also faces
15 counts of false notarization of an absentee ballot.

A search of the couple's home and property, which is filled with scattered
car parts from an alleged chop-shop operation, produced $155,000 in cash
from a freezer, nearly 3 pounds of pure methamphetamine valued at $800,000
and paperwork indicating more fraudulent voting practices in Haskell
County's 2002 election, authorities said.

Late Thursday, authorities found more than 20 pounds of dried ephedrine --
a common meth ingredient -- valued at more than $1 million in an abandoned
house on one of Copeman's properties. Some of it was encased in waterproof
cylinders and hidden under hay bales; the rest was buried. Charged with
drug manufacturing and trafficking, the couple could face life in prison
and up to a $500,000 fine. They posted bail and were released last week,
and failed to appear for a hearing. Warrants have been issued for their
arrests.

Copeman's nephews, Sammy Dwight Copeman, 32, and Charles Copeman Jr., 28,
both of Stigler, also are charged with one count each of conspiracy to
commit a felony. They also have been released on bail.

Okmulgee County will prosecute the vote scandal cases, since Miller's
predecessor, Kalyn Free, recused the district attorney's office from the
case because of a conflict of interest. Part of the district attorney's job
is to represent elected officials.

Meth or cash According to court records, the alleged scheme began surfacing
when an informant told the OSBI that before the September 2000 sheriff's
runoff election, then-Sheriff Charles Carry asked Eddy Copeman to help him
get re-elected.

Carry had become sheriff after his predecessor, Jim Terrell, resigned in
2000 and later pleaded guilty to grand larceny. Carry told The Oklahoman he
knows nothing of the voting scheme and had no association with Copeman.
Carry has not been charged.

Carry lost the election to Manuel Ballard. Of Carry's total votes, 24
percent were absentee ballots. Ballard's votes included 16 percent absentee
ballots. The statewide average is 6 percent.

Seabolt did not expect to be revealed publicly. When he learned his name
had appeared on a public document, he said he feared being killed.

"I know my life's at risk now, but I just thought it was time something
ought to be done," Seabolt said. "There's hundreds and hundreds of people
influenced by him (Eddy Copeman). ... He had a lot more power than anybody
thinks."

Carolyn Gibson also regretted her name was released. She told authorities
Copeman recruited her to solicit absentee ballots by offering either $20 or
a "quarter paper" of meth for their absentee voter packets, according to
court records.

Gibson allegedly told an OSBI agent she canvassed people in Keota,
providing them with applications and at times helping to fill them out. She
delivered the packets to Copeman's home, according to court records.
Absentee ballots are simple to get. A registered voter may pick up an
application from a county election board office, download it from the
Internet or request one by mail. Marcia Goff, the Haskell County Election
Board secretary, said no signature is required when picking up an absentee
packet or several packets at an election board office.

Once an application is received, Goff said, officials check to ensure it is
from a registered voter, then they mail the absentee ballot to the voter.
The voter then marks the ballot, has it notarized and mails it back.

Or the voter sells it for drugs or cash, authorities allege.

In the OSBI investigation of the 2000 election, agents questioned 35 people
whose absentee ballots were notarized by Blunt. Of those, 19 said Blunt was
not present when they signed their ballots, 14 said she was present, and
two said they did not sign their ballots at all.

Alleged voter fraud such as this most often occurs in local or county
races, and the state Election Board does not monitor it. Rather, it is up
to county election officials to alert their district attorneys of any
irregularities, such as an unusually high absentee count, Clingman said.
Even then, not all absentee ballots are illegitimate. Having more of them
may simply mean that a polling place shut down and voters chose not to
travel to one farther away.

"I don't think it's real prevalent, but in eastern Oklahoma there's been
several cases over the last 20 years," said Clingman, who pointed out that
rural Haskell County casts as many absentee ballots as the more populous
Oklahoma County.

No stranger to fraud Before methamphetamine came on the scene, talk was
that a six-pack of beer would buy someone's absentee ballot in Haskell
County, and perhaps a few other counties, as well.

And yet, not all investigations turned up results.

In 1996, then-Sheriff Leon Upton lost his bid for re-election in the runoff
election to Jim Terrell, a former undersheriff. Terrell received 1,918
votes to Upton's 1,719.

Upton carried nine of 12 precincts and lost in absentee voting, 458 to 206.
Terrell had twice as many absentee ballots cast for him -- 24 percent in
all. He later resigned.

In 1982, U.S. marshals confiscated the absentee ballots from primary
elections in Haskell County after authorities received allegations of
voting irregularities. Again, the percentage of absentee ballots cast in
the county commissioner race was particularly large.

In that race, incumbent Democratic Commissioner Ray Ballard won re-election
over his Democratic opponent, James Bates, by a vote of 1,064 to 456.
Ballard received 453 absentee votes -- 42 percent of his total. Bates had
36 absentee votes.

High absentee voting continued in the 1998 county commissioner race, when
Gary Maxwell won with absentee ballots totaling 52 percent of his vote.

Tampering with votes is more than an ethical problem, it is a felony,
Clingman said.

"We hope they bring these people to justice," he said.