Last May a Democratic Primary took place in Bath County, Kentucky. Walter Shrout won his party's nomination for County Judge-Executive, and went on to win the general election--there was no Republican candidate for the seat.
In March, 2007 Shrout was found guilty on a variety of federal charges, including conspiracy to buy votes and was forced to resign his office.
Around this time, the Kentucky State Auditor discovered a massive deficit in Bath County, particularly in the county roads budget.
Last month, Roosevelt "Sonny" Swartz pleaded guilty to taking part in the vote buying scheme.
Today, the Lexington Herald-Leader is reporting an alleged Bath County vote-buyer may have attempted to contact members of his jury. Chuck B. Hart's trial was scheduled to begin today, and surprise, surprise--he's also charged with jury tampering in another Bath County vote-buying trial, that of Donald "Champ" Maze, the former Bath County Attorney. He's the former County Attorney, Maze, according the the US Attorney's Office of Eastern Kentucky, "pleaded guilty to buying votes, aiding and abetting, and perjury."
Hart is out on bond, but the prosecuting attorney in the case wants it revoked.
As I've blogged before, I'm curious as to why the MSM, outside of a few Kentucky news sources, continues to overlook this story. Yes Bath County is small and rural, but that makes it easier for vote buying to succeed. Cook County, Illinois, where I live, has over five million residents. Cook is hardly a haven of clean government, but vote-buying on a wide scale won't work here. No one can afford it.
The Lexington Herald-Leader has done a pretty good job of keeping on top of this story, the paper is my primary source of information on these cases, but the Herald-Leader has a nasty habit of not mentioning the party affiliation of the accused office-holders.
Related posts:
Don Gordon v. Joe Moore vote fraud suit proceeds, moves to discovery phase
Obama and the Laborers' Union Ed Smith
Illegal Wisconsin voter speaks from prison
Convicted vote thief joined by top local Dems at his pre-prison going away party
Technorati tags:
Democrats 
crime 
corruption 
vote fraud 
Kentucky 
elections 
election fraud
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