Logan County Clerk John Turner acknowledges that some mishaps did occur during last month's primary election, but said none of them would be enough to overturn a close loss by a circuit judge.
Circuit Judge Douglas Witten filed a petition last week with the clerk of the state House of Delegates in an attempt to overturn the election results. Witten, who was appointed to the bench last year, lost his bid to keep the seat by 59 votes to Joshua Butcher.
Witten claims in his petition that - among other reasons - irregularities at several precincts around the county cost him the election. He claims those irregularities would give him 4,351 votes, compared to 4,330 for Butcher.
Turner, however, said Friday that he has spoken with officials with the Secretary of State's office and that they informed him none of the issues Witten bases his petition on should lead to votes being thrown out.
Witten's petition states that 10 more ballots were cast on May 10 at the Bulwark precinct than the number of voters who signed the poll books.
"He claimed there were 'phantom voters' and that's just not true," said Turner. "Sometimes older folks get to talking and forget to sign."
Forgetting to sign a poll book is an easy mistake to make, said Turner. When someone comes to vote, they sign their name next to a bar code with their registration number. That number is then torn out of the book and is what's attached and saved to their ballot.
"It's happened before and we just have to call those people and confirm they voted," Turner said, adding his office, at the direction of the Secretary of State's office, has confirmed the names of those voters.
Witten also argues that votes cast at a precinct in Sharples shouldn't be valid because poll workers didn't taken an oath before working the election.
Turner said that the poll workers actually did sign their oath, but that the paperwork must have been misplaced.
"I asked the Secretary of State about it and they asked me did [the poll workers] show up and I said yes. They are good people, I know them," Turner said, adding he had the poll workers sign another oath.
Turner said he assumes he will have to give a deposition in Witten's proceeding.
"I'm ready. We followed the code," said Turner. "I've been clerk for 10 years, I have a great staff. Nobody's perfect."
Witten also claims in his petition that, at a precinct in Lane, votes were compromised because Douglas Butcher's wife, Jamie Butcher, stood within 300 feet of the polling place entrance and intimidated and influenced voters.
Turner said neither he nor the Secretary of State's office received any complaints about Jamie Butcher, or any complaints at all from the Lane precinct. Jamie Butcher said last week that Witten's claims aren't true.
Witten "challenged those precincts because that's where he got beat pretty good," Turner said.
On Election Day, May 10, Turner said he received very few complaints. Early that morning, he said, he was notified about a campaign sign being too close to the Whitman precinct. At 4:30 p.m., he was told about signs being too close to the Mitchell Heights voting precinct.
None of those signs belonged to Butcher, according to Turner. The clerk didn't want to say whether any of the signs belonged to Witten. All of the signs in question were removed, he said.
Last month, Witten demanded a recount of the votes. Logan County commissioners conducted it May 27, which still resulted in Butcher taking the election. Three representatives from the Secretary of State's office were present for the recount, according to Turner.
Turner said he first notified the Secretary of State's office when a private investigator came to his office, said Witten had hired him and wanted to see the county's absentee ballots.
A state official told Turner that Witten had to have a court order to obtain the documents. Logan County's other circuit judge, Eric O'Briant, then provided Witten with a court order for the absentee ballots.
As part of the procedure to contest the election, Butcher will respond and, after time for discovery, the petition will be ruled on by a panel of three people - one chosen by Witten, one by Butcher and one by Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin. The governor, who is from Logan County, appointed Witten to the bench last year after former circuit judge Roger Perry retired.
According to Butcher's attorney, Witten has already chosen his member of the panel: John Counts, who served as treasurer of Witten's campaign.
Before considering issues he raises at individual precincts, Witten's petition argues that the election results should be discredited because voters were wrongly influenced by an attack on a state Senate candidate in the days before the election.
"Election Day voting was influenced in its entirety by the dissemination of materially false information regarding an allegedly politically motivated assault on a candidate for the Democratic nomination for West Virginia State Senate," according to Witten's petition.
Richard Ojeda, who was running for the seat held by Sen. Art Kirkendoll, D-Logan, was beaten at a cookout two days before the May 10 election. Ojeda was knocked unconscious and his face was fractured in eight places. He said he believed the attack came because he had spoken out against corruption in Logan County, and he defeated Kirkendoll - who was a county commissioner for 30 years before moving to the Senate.
Information "was deliberately and falsely disseminated and published throughout Logan County for the purpose of influencing the opinion of County voters in a manner contrary to a candidate named Art Kirkendall [sic], a man with whom Judge William Douglas Witten was identified," Witten's petition states.
Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @KateLWhite on Twitter.