PEMISCOT CLEARED IN VOTE SCHEME

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Allegations votes were traded for alcohol in Pemiscot County on Election Day could not be substantiated, state elections officials said Monday.

Missouri Secretary of State Bekki Cook received two phone calls on Nov. 7, claiming a Republican operative had witnessed voters in Caruthersville, Mo., being taken from polling places to a liquor store, where they presumably received free alcohol for voting. The county is heavily Democratic.

Cook said the calls came from state Sen. Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, and Lloyd Smith of Sikeston, Mo. Smith is the chief of staff for Republican U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson.

Cook sent two investigators to Caruthersville, arriving by 1 p.m. Nov. 7 to look into the allegations. Cook said the investigators didn't find enough evidence to warrant pursuing criminal charges.

The alleged irregularities were discussed before certification of Missouri's election results by the Board of State Canvassers, that Cook heads.

June Doughty, Cook's counsel, told the board the irregularities didn't affect the election's outcome.

Doughty said, "If anything was going on, it certainly stopped immediately upon our looking into it."

Kinder said the supposed eyewitness to the alcohol-for-votes scheme confronted the perpetrators before investigators arrived.

"We think the dust kicked up in that moment stopped it," Kinder said.

Kinder said the irregularity was similar to a scheme Republicans uncovered in Charleston, Mo., during the 1996 general election. Those claims resulted in a guilty plea.

Kinder said he was satisfied that Cook promptly sent investigators to look into the matter.