The "half-pint vote"dirt farmers, hillbillies and unemployed coal miners who sell out on Election Day for a half-pint of whiskyis 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...
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