Special prosecutor to look into charges of Dem voter bounty

Athens County Common Pleas Court Judge L. Alan Goldsberry Thursday assigned Delaware County Prosecutor David Yost to investigate allegations that local Democrats planned to reward Ohio University student volunteers a small bounty for each voter they brought to the polls last Friday.The assignment came nearly a week after the vice president of the Ohio College Democrats sent an e-mail to student club members urging them to participate in a get-out-the-vote march to the polls for early voting Friday, Oct. 30.
No problem there, except that in the e-mail, Kellie Gahan wrote, "If you have not voted yet, please come on out and bring some friends in the same situation... Remember, if you bring a friend from 4th ward they are more than a friend, they're 5 bucks!"

This led to charges aired statewide that the student political club was paying students to vote in the contested Athens City Council Fourth Ward race between Democrat Christine Fahl and Republican Randy Morris.

It turns out that the most the College Democrats were doing was offering to pay student volunteers $5 per head for bringing in likely Fourth Ward voters, though even that's questionable under state law, and has led to the ongoing investigation.

Questioned about the get-out-the-vote program, representatives of the College Democrats said they were simply offering to pay volunteers as an incentive to perform regular party activities such as door-to-door canvassing. In any event, they said they never wound up paying anybody anything, and only got 10 students to vote early on Friday, Oct. 30.

Under pressure, however, the College Democrats quickly disavowed the program, and blamed it on the Athens County Democratic Party, and by extension, party Chair Gwinn.

This has led to widespread criticism of Gwinn both from Republicans and leaders inside her own state and local parties. At least one local Democratic office-holder, Athens Law Director Pat Lang, has called on Gwinn to resign, both because of the College Democrats' brouhaha, and because she is still facing a six-count local indictment for election finance irregularities.

State Party Chair Redfern jumped into the controversy Tuesday morning, issuing a news release slamming the payment program alluded to in the notorious College Democrats' e-mail as "stupid," and demanding an immediate investigation. Late Wednesday afternoon, Redfern called on Gwinn to resign as Athens County Democratic Party chair "for the good of the party."

A spokesman for Redfern added in an e-mail that the chairman wanted to clarify "that we are not making accusations against OU College Dems. Since Susan Gwinn reportedly offered the money and devised the program herself, responsibility lies with her. In fact, it would be very unfortunate if Susan Gwinn's actions were to reflect poorly on OU College Dems."

Thursday, A Party for All, a splinter group within the county Democratic Party, renewed its earlier call for Gwinn to resign her chairmanship of the party.

"These alleged actions further support our call for change within the local Athens County Democratic Party to one that is transparent, maintains integrity, strives for inclusion, and is accountable for its actions," the group stated in an e-mailed news release.

On Friday, Yost said that that election law prohibits the offering of anything of value in exchange for a vote.

"We don't know what the facts are on this yet," Yost said. "The investigation is just beginning."

Those claiming wrongdoing point to Ohio Revised Code 3599.02, which deals with bribery.

The applicable section reads: "No person shall before, during, or after any primary, general, or special election or convention solicit, request, demand, receive, or contract for any money, gift, loan, property, influence, position, employment, or other thing of value for that person or for another person for doing any of the following..."

One of the listed activities is "agreeing to vote or to refrain from voting." The key phrase in that section will probably be "for another person," since the issue at hand is the legality of paying volunteers a bounty to bring others in to vote in a specific election race.

As far as a timeline for the process moving forward, Yost said that his office wants to get to the truth of the matter, which will take as long as it takes.

"There's an investigation by police or investigators," Yost said, laying out the process. "The case is put together and presented to a grand jury in secret. The grand jury decides whether there is probable cause to believe a crime has been committed. And they can indict or not indict."

Yost was also assigned as a special prosecutor investigating Gwinn on the matter of campaign finance irregularities. Gwinn was indicted by a grand jury on six charges related to campaign contributions and alleged theft in office, to which she pled innocent.

Supporters of Gwinn have said she's the victim of a vendetta by political foes, including Athens County Prosecutor C. David Warren, Yost (who's a prominent Republican running for state attorney general in 2010), and state Democratic Chairman Redfern, with whom Gwinn has tangled in the past.

In a prepared statement on Election Day, Gwinn strongly denied original allegations leveled by county and state Republican leaders that the Oct. 31 get-out-the-vote program involved paying students to vote. However, she has not addressed the issue that's apparently under investigation - whether the College Democrats offered a bounty to volunteers to bring in Fourth Ward voters to early vote, and whether that's illegal.

The closest she came to addressing that issue came in an interview with the Columbus Dispatch on Tuesday, Nov. 3, in which she acknowledged that "discussions" were held about paying student volunteers for a get-out-the-vote program but that it never went into effect. - Athens NEWS Editor Terry Smith contributed to this article