West Virginia's coal country has a long and rich history of vote-buying - which explains why many folks in Lincoln County all but shrugged over the indictment last month of five people on federal charges they secured votes for liquor or a $20 bill or two.
Sharrell Lovejoy, 83, said he has heard rumors of vote-buying since he opened his Bobcat Restaurant on Hamlin's main drag in 1948.
''It's gone on for ages,'' said Lovejoy, behind his diner's hand-cranked register. ''I'm sure they're still doing it. They're just more careful about it.''
As with past election fraud probes, the latest case targets solely Democrats, who dominate the voter rolls and local governments through the region. In Lincoln County, population 22,100, Democrats outnumber Republicans 4-to-1; the indictment focuses largely on the party's primary elections.
Not that the GOP has clean hands. Republican former Gov. Arch Moore pleaded guilty to five corruption-related charges in 1990, including one that alleged he spent $100,000 in unreported campaign cash during his successful 1984 campaign.
''This seems to be something that is just in the blood of people in southern West Virginia. They're always looking for ways to get away with this,'' said Ken Hechler, who fielded election fraud complaints as West Virginia's secretary of state from 1985 to 2000.
With Hechler's help, a state-federal task force secured more than two dozen election-related convictions in Mingo County in the 1980s. Ensnared officials included a former sheriff, a county commissioner, a school board president and a Democratic Party chairman.
In the 1990s, politicians in neighboring Logan County found themselves on the defensive. Two state legislators, the county assessor and a Circuit Court judge, among others, went to jail on corruption charges that included vote-buying.
Federal investigators revisited Logan County last year. The sheriff and a city police chief resigned and pleaded guilty to exchanging money for votes. Three other people were convicted on related charges.
The current case targets Circuit Court clerk Greg Stowers, 48, the son of Lincoln County's longtime Democratic Party chairman; his deputy, Clifford Odell ''Groundhog'' Vance, 49; Jackie David Adkins, 36, a state highway worker; Wandell ''Rocky'' Adkins, 49, no relation; and Toney ''Zeke'' Dingess, 34.
