A hearing has been scheduled in the case of a West Virginia senator challenging the results of the primary election, which he lost.

Sen. Chandler Swope, R-Mercer, filed a challenge to the election results in seven Mingo County precincts after losing the Republican primary to opponent Craig Hart. 

The hearing will be at 9 a.m. July 18 at the Mingo County Courthouse.

In a notice filed earlier this month, Swope said he intends to challenge all votes cast in seven precincts in Mingo County. He requested to examine poll books across the county and reserves the right to amend the challenge to include additional precincts if irregularities are found. 

According to the West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office, Hart won 75% or 2,152 votes in Mingo County, while Swope captured 364 and former state Del. Eric Porterfield had 344. 

In total, Hart won the election with 4,847 votes amounting to about 40%, while Swope had 4,384 votes, or approximately 37%. Porterfield had 2,633 or 22% of the votes. 

Swope’s challenge includes four affidavits and an unsworn letter from Mingo County voters alleging irregularities with the primary election. 

Based on the voter accounts and a Republican turnout of more than 70% percent in 12 of 28 precincts, compared with an approximately 47% Republican turnout for the county during the 2020 primary, Swope’s challenge says it appears many Mingo County voters were improperly given a choice about which primary they wanted to participate in, rather than being given the ballot of their respective party registration. 

“These issues span multiple precincts, and in all likelihood, explain the unusually high number of Republican ballots submitted,” Swope’s challenge said. 

In a joint motion, Swope and Hart requested a procedural hearing around July 1 to discuss procedural issues ahead of the July 18 hearing. They noted that both have filed Freedom of Information Act requests with the Mingo County Clerk’s Office.

Anthony Majestro, a Charleston attorney representing Hart, said the Mingo commission has agreed to allow them to review the poll books Friday to see if it’s mathematically possible for Swope to win the election in the challenged precincts.

Majestro said Swope’s challenge of specific precincts raises issues of disenfranchising people who correctly voted and possibly affecting other races. Swope’s argument about the high percentage of Republican votes cast in the primary is misleading, Majestro said, because it does not take into account independent voters, the number of which have increased in the past few years as the number of registered Democrats has declined. 

According to the West Virginia Secretary of State’s office, in April 2020, Mingo County had 3,291 registered Republicans, 12,691 registered Democrats and 1,987 independent voters. As of April 2024, the county has 5113 registered Republicans, 7,202 Democrats and 2,295 independent voters. 

“It shouldn’t surprise anybody that the independents are voting in the Republican primary rather than the Democratic primary, because there were no contested races in the Democratic primary …no local races contested,” Majestro said. 

Swope was one of four West Virginia senators to lose seats during the primary election last month. 

Mingo County Commission President Nathan Brown did not immediately return a call seeking comment.