Nope. Not in America. Say it ain't so! Drug dealers caught trafficking cocaine and votes! Apparently both sides liked the proceeds.
Drug money funds voter fraud in Kentucky
By Eric Shawn, Published July 25, 2012, FoxNews.com
Voter fraud has a shocking new meaning in eastern Kentucky.
That is where in some cases, major cocaine and marijuana dealers admitted to buying votes to steal elections, and the result is the corruption of American democracy. The government continues to mete out justice in the scandal, as two people convicted in April in a vote-buying case face sentencing this week, and another public official pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiracy.
"We believe that drug money did buy votes," Kerry B. Harvey, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, said of a separate vote-buying case.
He described a stunning vote-buying scheme that includes "very extensive, organized criminal activity, involving hundreds of thousands of dollars, and in many cases that involves drug money."
Harvey has led a recent string of federal prosecutions exposing the widespread and accepted practice of vote buying in eastern Kentucky. The soft-spoken federal prosecutor, along with his team and state authorities, are waging a battle against what he characterizes as a vote-buying culture embedded in many of the communities for generations.
He says the problem is rooted in economic woes, which is why votes are routinely for sale. In that part of the state, jobs are scarce and poverty is high. Controlling local government means controlling jobs.
“These folks go out and hijack the local elections for their own purposes and then they use those jobs to enrich themselves and their confederates. It really is a terrible problem and it has to be stopped,” Harvey explains.
In Clay County, according to court testimony, some of the funds to purchase votes came from massive cocaine and marijuana drug trafficking operations.
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Continuing further down the article we see this:
"When it comes to vote buying, it’s an everyday thing. ... It’s pretty much like jaywalking," admits former Breathitt County magistrate candidate Michael Salyers, who is now serving time in jail for buying votes in his 2010 race. While the funds in his case did not involve drug money, he describes how he was given $500 and ended up buying about 10 votes. He would meet people seeking to sell their votes in the back room of a local store."
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