VOTING IRREGULARITIES ARTICLE TOPIC

CHARLEST0N -- Eight months have passed since the general election, and many Mississippi County voters may have forgotten the furor that cropped up on Election Day 1996.

The excitement concerned allegations of voter fraud in the state representative race between Gene Copeland of New Madrid and Lanie Black of Charleston.

Copeland, the Democrat incumbent, won the election over Black, the Republican challenger, 6,059-4,893. But reports of voters receiving liquor coupons or cash for votes led to investigations of the election.

People throughout the nation were reminded of the 1996 events in Mississippi County as Mississippi County voters went to the polls to Tuesday to vote on a courthouse tax to rebuild the courthouse, which was destroyed by an arson fire Feb. 10.

The Wall Street Journal, which sent a reporter into the Charleston area recently, ran an article, "Missouri Town's Election Scandal Shows Systems's Ills" in its Tuesday publication.

The Southeast Missourian described many of the Election Day events at the time of the reported voting irregularities under headlines, "Feds Probing Allegations of Voter Fraud" and "Emerson Pushes for Voter Fraud Investigations."

It wasn't until February that federal officials acknowledged that they were conducting a formal investigation into allegations of voter fraud in Mississippi County.

A request for the investigation was made days after the election by newly elected U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson.

Federal agencies are hesitant to discuss pending investigations, saying they can't discuss the nature of the probe or any subjects connected with it.

The only way to know if a federal investigation produces results is when some agency announces arrests or indictments.

"I think the Wall Street Journal article was a good narrative," said David Barklage of Cape Girardeau, a Republican campaign operative who was quoted in the Journal article and who was partially responsible for the initial investigation into voter fraud.

"It put some things into perspective for a national audience," said Barklage. "It provided the link to problems nationwide on vote-buying, and shows the serious nature of it.

"A lot of people think that vote-buying is part of our culture ... but, that doesn't mean we have to tolerate it," said Barklage.