A senator from southern West Virginia has withdrawn his challenge to the results of the Mingo County primary election, but expressed concern about the irregularities in the election process that it revealed.

Senator Chandler Swope (R-Mercer) withdrew that objection on Monday with an assurance that the West Virginia Secretary of State’s office would train poll workers and county officials to respond to irregularities discovered during the review of ballot documents.

“In the course of his review of voter rolls, ballots and other election materials, Senator Swope discovered that there were numerous irregularities in the Mingo County election that resulted in an impossible number of Republican votes being cast,” Swope’s lawyers said. wrote in the file.

Swope lost the Republican nomination for challenger Craig HartDistrictwide, Hart won 4,847 votes, or about 40%, while Swope received 4,384 votes, or about 37%. A third candidate, former Del. Eric Porterfield, received 2,633, or 22% of the vote.

In Mingo County, Hart won 75%, or 2,152 votes, while Swope received 364 and Porterfield received 344, according to the Secretary of State’s office.

Swopes June Challenge claimed that the vote totals reported by Mingo County were incorrect and that some registered Democrats had participated in the Republican primary, which was not allowed.

The document filed Monday said that in Precinct 75, for example, 93 registered Republicans participated in the primary election, according to the voter rolls, and another 58 independent voters received a Republican ballot, which should have totaled 151. However, Mingo County reported 187 Republican ballots cast. 59 registered Democrats cast their ballots, but Mingo reported only 31 Democratic ballots cast, the document said.

District 75 had the most errors, but it was not the only one with irregularities, the filing said.

“Senator Swope maintains that the irregularities in these precincts should lead to their being completely disqualified,” the court filing states. “However, he recognizes that the legal burden of disqualifying entire precincts from the ballot is extremely high. More than winning the election, Senator Swope wants to ensure that these irregularities are corrected and that Mingo County’s primary elections are free of confusion or controversy in the future. The lessons learned from this election should be used to better train poll workers and officials, not only in Mingo County, but across the state.”

In the same document, the West Virginia Secretary of State’s office pointed to a lack of compliance with the state’s election laws and announced that it would focus on retraining poll workers and county clerks.

“In the present matter, a review of election records indicates a lack of compliance with election laws relating to the proper receipt and process for enabling voting at the precinct level in primary elections,” the Secretary of State’s office said. “This lack of compliance existed in several precincts throughout Mingo County. Errors in a small number of precincts at the state level are understandable. However, allowing numerous voters to cast their ballots for a political party they did not belong to is unlawful and does not meet the election administration standards this office expects of county elections.”

The office announced it would do more to emphasize training and guidance for poll workers and officials. A statewide training conference planned for fall 2025 will include training on processing voter ballots in the primary election, the office said.

In a opinion Hart said he shared Swope’s concerns about irregularities, but noted that there were not 463 irregularities, as was the winning point in the election. He claimed they were the result of good faith misunderstandings, not intentional fraud.

“Mr. Hart joins Senator Swope in his desire to incorporate lessons learned from this election campaign into the training of poll workers in Mingo County and across the state,” Hart’s lawyers wrote. “Mr. Hart believes that the problems uncovered in Mingo County also occurred in other counties in this Senate district and across the state, but there was not enough time for a comprehensive investigation.”

He added that he welcomed the State Department’s commitment to training and said that if elected, he would work to review and improve government regulations to restrict such training in the future.

A message left with Mingo County Commission President Tom Taylor was not immediately returned Monday.