A former Clay County precinct worker testified Friday that top election officers in the county taught her how to change people's choices on voting machines to steal votes in the May 2006 primary.Wanda White testified that Clerk Freddy Thompson -- the county's chief election officer -- helped show her how to manipulate voting machines along with Charles Wayne Jones, the Democratic election commissioner.
The scheme involved duping people to walk away from the voting computer before they had finished their selections, then changing their choices, said White, the Democratic judge in a precinct in Manchester.
White said she stole more than 100 votes that election. "It was easy done," she said.
White said she also went into the booth with people who had sold their vote to make sure they cast ballots for the candidates who had paid.
White testified Friday in the continuing trial of eight Clay County residents who allegedly took part in a scheme to rig elections over several years. Those charged are former Circuit Judge R. Cletus Maricle; former county school Superintendent Douglas Adams; Thompson, who is still clerk; Jones; William Stivers, a former election officer; Magistrate Stanley Bowling; and William "Bart" Morris and his wife, Debra.
The eight have strongly denied the charges and say witnesses against them have lied to help themselves. Most witnesses so far have been convicted felons who would like to get their sentences cut.
White, who is in her early 40s, said she agreed to help the FBI in return for not being charged. That deal requires her to testify truthfully, she said.