VOTE-BUYING CHARGES HARD TO PROVE

Absentee Voting Among The Signs, Officials Say

LOUISVILLE - Vote-buying allegations that crop up during elections often
mean cash and sometimes whiskey.

But drugs made the list this year in Eastern Kentucky during an especially
violent campaign season.

Nearly a dozen complaints alleging that votes were sold for drugs reached
Knott County authorities during last Tuesday's primary. Yet such claims are
difficult to prove, Lori Daniel, the county's assistant commonwealth's
attorney, told The Courier-Journal.

And Daniel, also an assistant prosecutor in Magoffin County, said the
culture of vote buying in Eastern Kentucky has reached a new and dangerous
level with the rampant abuse of OxyContin, a powerful prescription painkiller.

"That is the most prevalent drug we have right now," Daniel said. "If
you're using something as currency, that's the thing you'd want to get your
hands on."

During primary campaigns in Eastern Kentucky, the Pulaski County sheriff
and a former Harlan County sheriff trying to win back the office were
slain, and three shootings surrounded the race for Clay County clerk.

On primary day, vote-buying complaints surfaced in at least six Eastern
Kentucky counties.

Secretary of State John Y. Brown III said the state offered rewards a few
years ago to combat vote buying, but the effort failed because people
weren't specific enough with allegations or wouldn't name names.

"I think the attorney general's office calls it home cooking," said Brown,
Kentucky's top election officer. "They don't want to name names or give
details because the guy buying the votes is their neighbor, a relative, or
they see them in church every week."

Tracey Campbell, a history professor at the University of Kentucky who has
written extensively on vote buying, said it is deeply embedded in Kentucky
and American culture.

"The attitude is that I've got to do this, because my opponent is doing
it," Campbell said.

The state attorney general's office received 175 complaints of vote fraud
before the May 28 primary, 110 on the day of the election and 22 since
then, said office spokeswoman Barbara Hadley Smith.

Smith said the complaints alleged vote buying and fraud with absentee ballots.

According to Brown, a high percentage of absentee voters is generally a
tip-off of vote buying. He said he's not sure anything will ever solve the
problem.

"Some experts say that once you have vote fraud ingrained in culture, it's
very hard to remove it with anything short of going in and exposing the
entire mess and having a number of convictions," Brown said.

About half of the state's 31,236 voters who cast absentee ballots in the
primary used paper ballots that are mailed to county clerks. Brown said
vote buyers prefer paper ballots because they can actually cast the votes
themselves.

According to data from the state Board of Elections, six counties exceeded
the 5 percent threshold in the primary, led by Owsley County's 9.35
percent. The statewide average was 1.16 percent.

Owsley County Clerk Sid Gabbard said the high number of absentee voters was
nothing new.

"We've always had a lot of absentees here. They were in and out of here. We
had no problem with anything," he said.

The other counties were Clinton, 7.3 percent; Cumberland, 5.73 percent;
Elliott, 5.72 percent; Clay, 5.45 percent; and Magoffin, 5.41 percent.

Brown said county authorities know what's going on but are powerless to
stop it.

"You have a stampede of people wanting absentee ballots come in at the same
time, or somebody comes in and says they are going to be out of county on
election day when the county clerk knows perfectly well that person hasn't
left the county in 30 years," Brown said. "I don't think the clerk has a
choice but to give them the ballot, even though they probably smell what is
going on."