Drug dealers buying elections in Eastern Kentucky

There aren't a lot of jobs in Eastern Kentucky. You mostly either work in the coal industry, which Obama is trying to destroy, or you work for the government. Eastern Kentucky has a long history of vote buying and voter fraud. Government jobs are highly sought after and local elections are very important because they determine who does the hiring. In the last few decades drugs and social welfare programs have expanded their use and influence. If you don't have a job, you either grow a crop(marijuana) or get a check(from the government.) The grow a crop plan has expanded into meth, Oxycontin and other hard drugs, but the dealers understand the importance of being in favor with the politicians in power.

Voter fraud has a shocking new meaning in eastern Kentucky.

That is where in some cases, major cocaine and marijuana dealers admitted to buying votes to steal elections, and the result is the corruption of American democracy. The government continues to mete out justice in the scandal, as two people convicted in April in a vote-buying case face sentencing this week, and another public official pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiracy. 

"We believe that drug money did buy votes," Kerry B. Harvey, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, said of a separate vote-buying case.

He described a stunning vote-buying scheme that includes "very extensive, organized criminal activity, involving hundreds of thousands of dollars, and in many cases that involves drug money."

Harvey has led a recent string of federal prosecutions exposing the widespread and accepted practice of vote buying in eastern Kentucky. The soft-spoken federal prosecutor, along with his team and state authorities, are waging a battle against what he characterizes as a vote-buying culture embedded in many of the communities for generations.