WEST VIRGINIA: Payola by the Pint

The “half-pint vote”—dirt farmers, hillbillies and unemployed coal miners who sell out on Election Day for a half-pint of whisky—is an old political institution in the depressed coal counties of southern West Virginia. But the goings-on at the polls in Logan and Wayne Counties in the May 10 Democratic primary scandalized even West Virginians. “I saw numerous people being paid off for their votes,” said Poll Watcher Sam Hatfield, of the famed Hatfields v. McCoys feuding clan. “The standard payoff appeared to be one half-pint of bourbon whisky and $2 to $5 in cash.” Editor Charles D. Hylton Jr. of the Logan Banner said that the going rate “ranged anywhere from $2 and a drink of whisky to $6 and two pints of whisky for a single vote.” Added Logan County Lawyer Ned Grubb: “At four different polling places I saw men I can identify, passing money.”

The Logan County grand jury has scheduled an investigation, and last week a county citizens’ committee was gathering signatures on a petition asking the Federal Justice Department to police future elections to guard against “mass buying of votes.” FBI agents were already in Wayne County, investigating alleged voting violations. And at a Washington press conference. Vice President Nixon’s press secretary. Herbert Klein, told newsmen that some “friends” in West Virginia were looking into Democratic expenditures during the primary campaign. “We are making no accusations,” said Klein. “We’re just trying to see what was spent and how.”