Del. Kimble challenges election loss, says GOP ballots exceeded number of registered GOP voters

Citing possible “voting irregularities,” House of Delegate member Laura Kimble, R-Harrison, will formally challenge the results of the recent primary election after her narrow loss by six votes to Tim McNeely.

She is seeking to confirm if any non-Republican voters cast a ballot during the closed Republican primary election last month. According to her filing, there are a total of 28 instances where the number of Republican ballots cast in the contested election appears to exceed the number of registered Republicans who voted in the applicable precinct. 

Kimble’s challenge comes after a recount finalized that she had lost to McNeely in the 71st district.

“I understand that it’s a long shot that this is going to change my election, but I’m hopeful that the information that we have at least will help … protect the integrity of the future Republican primaries,” she said in a phone interview on Monday. “We’ll see what the weakness is in this whole process.”

The Republican primary was closed this year, meaning only registered Republicans could request a Republican ballot.

Kimble said her challenge was prompted by voting issues in Fayette County, where County Clerk Michelle Holly said there were reports of unaffiliated voters receiving Republican ballots. Holly has since called for changes to West Virginia’s election procedures and new election equipment, as reported by Lootpress. 

“After that article, I thought, ‘Well, wait a second, could that have happened here? Is that a possibility?’” Kimble said. She contacted her local county clerk, who told her it was “technically possible” that election irregularities like non-Republicans voting in the Republican primary could have also occurred in Harrison County. 

Kimble filed the challenge June 5 with McNeely and the Harrison County Commission. According to the filing “there are discrepancies between the voter history and the precinct results indicating that more Republican ballots were counted than the number of registered Republicans voting” in multiple precincts in the 71st district. 

“Because I requested the recount … I still had that window of time to ask these questions then to contest the election,” Kimble said.

Kimble stressed that she wasn’t blaming poll workers for possible errors and said she thought paper ballots could have prevented potential errors in distributing ballots. 

There were 688 votes cast for McNeely and 682 votes for Kimble in the May primary. 

McNeely is the former Fairmont State University athletic director. He will face Democratic challenger Robert Garcia, brother of current House member Rick Garcia, D-Marion, in the general election in November.

Kimble currently serves as chairwoman of the Legal Services subcommittee in the House.