Fayetteville, WV (WOAY) – William Vest entered the May primary as a Republican candidate for the Fayette County Executive Committee. After the election, he says the county commission notified him of voting irregularities.
“They were showing that there was 38 votes illegally, which I would actually surpass the next person in line,” Vest said.
At a special commission meeting Tuesday, commissioners offered Vest the option of a recount. Vest declined, as a recount counts the same ballots and cannot remove votes that should not have been cast, and that he would have had to pay for it himself. The commission then moved to certify the results.
“And now the burden is on me. And that really upsets me because the burden should be on the county clerk, because the county clerk is the one that supervises elections,” he said.
Vest claims his own evidence puts the number of irregular votes as high as 96, a figure that has not been independently verified. Challenging the certified result will require hiring an attorney and returning before the commission within a set deadline before any potential court proceeding.
“My understanding is I will have to get an attorney. I have to present evidence before the commission, which will require me coming back over here, going before them, and I’ll be on a time limit. So if I don’t make that time limit, then I don’t, I’m not entertained. They can just bury it,” Vest said.
Vest says the experience points to a broader problem with how elections are administered across West Virginia, and that he intends to keep pushing.
“If we don’t have fair elections in this country, we’re no better than a third world country. You got to keep fighting because if you don’t fight for something you’ll fall for everything. And I’m not falling for anything. I’ll be fighting it, to the max.”
