Latest on the East St. Louis "$10 per vote" trial

No mistrial yet in East St. Louis, here is the latest on the trial of the alleged vote buyers:

From the Belleville News-Democrat:

Federal prosecutors unveiled the crux of their vote-fraud case against five Democratic Party leaders Friday, playing tapes made by undercover informant Rudy McIntosh.

The tapes show that ex-city council member Charles Powell Jr. and the four other defendants took part in a scheme to pay voters $5 to $10 apiece to elect Mark Kern, the St. Clair County Board chairman, and other Democratic candidates in the Nov. 2 election, according to McIntosh and prosecutors.

Kern called earlier testimony that claimed he participated in a conversation about vote buying "absolutely untrue."

Here is the "good stuff," from the same article:

In one tape, which McIntosh secretly recorded on Oct. 29, McIntosh met with Powell at Powell's house, 1714 Bond Ave.

As chairman of the city's Democratic Party, Powell approved Democratic precinct committeemen budgets for getting out the Election Day vote. The money would come from the St. Clair County Democratic Central Committee, based in Belleville.

But the amount of money Powell had previously approved for McIntosh's precinct -- $5 per vote -- was not enough because Kern, who is white, was perceived as a racist, McIntosh testified.

"Here's the bottom line," McIntosh, the city's former deputy police chief, is heard saying on the tape. "Five dollars a vote ain't going to do it."

Powell is heard telling McIntosh to pay voters $10 apiece, though the total amount McIntosh would receive from the party -- $2,000 -- would stay the same. That meant McIntosh needed to cut the number of votes he could buy -- from 230 to 100 or 150, McIntosh testified.