Committee members from the Magnolia District, which includes the town of Matewan, told the Commission there were irregularities at the meeting of the Committee in which poll workers were chosen.
“It a slap in the face,” Violet Stanley said. Stanley has worked as a poll worker in the Magnolia District before, and said she felt insulted that workers from other districts were being placed in Magnolia District.
The West Virginia Secretary of State’s guidelines call for executive committees of each county to hold a meeting to approve a list of nominees submitted by committee members by majority vote. Once the executive committee makes its nominations, the county commission must appoint all eligible nominees.
The meeting held by the Mingo Democratic Committee to choose poll workers was held in January. A list of potential poll workers for the Magnolia District was submitted by Magnolia Committee persons Rosie Crum and Robert Smith. A second list of workers for Magnolia was submitted by Dan Kinder, who is a Committee member from the Beech-Ben-Mate District. The two lists were brought to a vote.
What transpired next is at the heart of the controversy.
According to the drafted, but not yet approved, minutes of the meeting, “After several minutes of discussion the two lists were brought to a vote. Dan Kinder’s list for Magnolia District received six votes and Rosie Crum and Robert Smith’s list received five votes. Three members abstained.”
However, Crum and Smith say there were two votes.
“The first vote, our list was approved by a six to five vote,” Smith said. “Then they voted for the other list, and it was approved five to six.”
“They said the reason was that we [the Magnolia District] had a better relationship to the County Commission,” Smith added.
Why a list of potential workers for Magnolia District was submitted by a Committee person from another district is only one of the issues being questioned. Smith said some of the potential workers on the list submitted by Kinder had not agreed to work the polls.
“Some of those people didn’t even know they were on the list,” Smith said. “They never told him [Kinder] they would work, they told me they wouldn’t do it.”
Matewan Mayor Shelia Kessler said she had spoken to the Chairman of the Democratic committee, Sheriff Lonnie Hannah, who presided over the meeting in which the votes were cast.
“I did speak to the chairman about that meeting,” Kessler said. “I asked him several times why our list wasn’t approved, and he didn’t answer. When I kept asking, he called me an idiot.”
Pat Garland was with Mayor Kessler when she approached Hannah about the meeting, he told the MCC.
“It was embarrassing,” Garland said. “He called the mayor an idiot three times. It doesn’t sound good.”
The Mingo County Commission said they feel there were issues concerning the committee that need to be addressed.
“You are standing up for the people who elected you,” Commissioner Smith told the people from the Magnolia District. “I applaud you for the fight. I think we should send a letter to Chairman Hannah to ask for another meeting, and have two committee persons from each district t attend.”
Commission President John Mark Hubbard agreed.
“I am offended that anyone thinks we have given preferential treatment to any group,” Hubbard said. “No one who has come to us with a legitimate concern has not been dealt with in a fair way.”
All three Commissioners agreed the situation with the Democratic Committee give the entire county a black eye.
“We need to raise our standards,” President Hubbard said. “This is totally unacceptable. Why say something is right when it is wrong?”
“The polls will be open and run in a fair just manner,” Smith said. “This is embarrassing, we have got to get above this. This is old time politics from a corrupt political leader.”
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