Hutchinson v. Miller, 85-1548

Citation797 F.2d 1279
Decision Date07 August 1986
Docket NumberNo. 85-1548,85-1548
PartiesRICO Bus.Disp.Guide 6338 John HUTCHINSON; William Reese; Leonard Underwood, Appellants, v. Margaret D. MILLER, individually and as Clerk of the County Commission of Kanawha County, West Virginia; David Michael Staton; Steven L. Miller; James E. Roark, individually and as Prosecuting Attorney of Kanawha County, West Virginia; John A. Cavacini, Jr.; Computer Elections Systems, Inc., a foreign corporation; Bernard H. Meadows; Clayton Spangler; Keith Ervin Long; Carl Clough; William E. Biebel; Darlene Dotson; Carolyn Critchfield, individually and as Voter Registrar of Kanawha County, West Virginia; Ann Carroll, individually and as Chief Deputy of the County Commission of Kanawha County, West Virginia, Appellees, and Cherrie Lloyd, Defendant.
CourtUnited States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (4th Circuit)

John E. Sutter (Ashcraft & Gerel, Baltimore, Md., on brief), and John R. Mitchell for appellants.

John F. Wood, Jr., for appellees Margaret D. Miller and Steven L. Miller.

Henry R. Glass, III (Chester Lovett, Lovett & Cooper, Charleston, W. Va., on brief), for appellee John A. Cavacini, Jr.

Larry A. Winter (David D. Johnson, III, Spilman, Thomas, Battle & Klostermeyer, Charleston, W. Va., on brief), for appellees Computer Election Systems, Inc., Irvine Keith Long, Cherrie Lloyd, Carl Clough and William Biebel.

W.E. Mohler, Charleston, W. Va., on brief, for appellee David M. Staton.

James B. McIntyre, Charleston, W. Va., on brief, for appellee James E. Roark.

Jack W. DeBolt, Charleston, W. Va., on brief, for appellee Bernard Meadows.

Michael R. Cline, Charleston, W. Va., on brief, for appellees Clayton Spangler, Darlene Dotson, Carolyn Critchfield and Anne Carroll.

Before PHILLIPS and WILKINSON, Circuit Judges, and GORDON, Senior United States District Judge for the Middle District of North Carolina, sitting by designation.

WILKINSON, Circuit Judge:

Plaintiffs are three unsuccessful candidates for public office who seek to recover approximately $9 million in damages under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983, 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1964 (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act--RICO), and the common law of West Virginia, for alleged irregularities in the 1980 general election. The district court granted motions to dismiss, summary judgment, or directed verdicts in favor of all defendants, various election officials and those alleged to have conspired with them to fix the election. The court found plaintiffs had failed to prove the existence of a conspiracy, on which their case depended, or to show a fundamentally unfair election amounting to a constitutional deprivation.

We conclude that federal courts are not available for awards of damages to defeated candidates. Requests for equitable intervention into factual disputes over the conduct of elections, which raise many of the same concerns as those presented by this damages action, are unavailing save in rare and extraordinary circumstances. We need not consider, however, whether the present case presents such circumstances, for plaintiffs seek no equitable relief. Because we are convinced that damages are unavailable in any event, we affirm the district court's dismissal of this action.

Our constitution does not contemplate that the federal judiciary routinely will pass judgment on particular elections for federal, state or local office. The conduct of elections is instead a matter committed primarily to the control of states, and legislative bodies are traditionally the final judges of their own membership. The legitimacy of democratic politics would be compromised if the results of elections were regularly to be rehashed in federal court. Federal courts, of course, have actively guarded the electoral process from class-based discrimination and restrictive state election laws. This suit, however, asks us to consider the award of damages for election irregularities that neither disenfranchised a class of voters nor impugned state and federal procedures for the proper conduct of elections. In this essentially factual dispute, we defer to those primarily responsible for elections and we refuse to authorize yet another avenue for those disgruntled with the political process to keep the contest alive in the courtroom.

I.

Plaintiffs were Democratic candidates in the 1980 general election in West Virginia. John Hutchinson sought re-election to the United States House of Representatives in the Third Congressional District of West Virginia. This district included Kanawha and Boone Counties--where the disputed elections occurred--as well as twelve other counties. Plaintiff Leonard Underwood was the incumbent delegate to the state house from Kanawha County, and plaintiff William Reese sought election as a County Commissioner for Kanawha County. Hutchinson and Reese were defeated by wide margins, while Underwood's loss was a narrow one.

Underwood requested a recount of all computer punchcard ballots cast in the election. When the Kanawha County Commission denied this request, Underwood sought a writ of mandamus in the Circuit Court of Kanawha County to compel a hand count of ballots. That action was dismissed, and a similar attempt before the state Supreme Court was found to be time barred. State ex rel. Underwood v. Silverstein, 278 S.E.2d 886 (W.Va.1981). Hutchinson filed a formal election complaint with the United States Attorney in January, 1981. The resolution of that complaint is not revealed in the record, but apparently was not satisfactory to Hutchinson. Plaintiffs filed their original complaint in this suit in February, 1983.

As amended, the complaint in essence charges that the election night totals were pre-determined by defendants, who then conspired to cover up their activities. Named as defendants in the suit were both local officials and private citizens alleged to have acted in concert with those officials. The officials included Margaret Miller, Clerk of the County Commission of Kanawha County; Carolyn Critchfield, Ann Carroll, Darlene Dotson and Clayton Spangler, employees in the clerk's office; James Roark, the Prosecuting Attorney of Kanawha County in 1980; and Bernard Meadows, employed by the Clerk of the County Commission of Boone County. Private citizens named as defendants included Steven Miller, husband of Margaret Miller; David Staton, the successful Congressional candidate in the 1980 election; and John Cavacini, who in 1980 was associated with the campaign of Governor John D. Rockefeller, IV. Finally, plaintiffs sued Computer Election Systems, Inc. (CES), which provided computer vote tabulating systems in Kanawha County, and four employees of CES--Keith Long, Carl Clough, Cherrie Lloyd, and William Biebel.

Plaintiffs allege that a conspiracy among the defendants began as early as January, 1979, when Kanawha County Commissioners considered the use of electronic voting equipment. They suggest that the Millers' support for the CES system and their role in the bidding process reveals the genesis of a scheme to fix the 1980 election. This purported scheme continued as CES employees helped county officials prepare for the use of CES equipment in the November election. Defendants, by contrast, describe the selection and preparation of CES equipment as legitimate and lawful activity designed to assist them in the efficient conduct of the election.

The CES system provided the county with electronic punch card vote tabulation, in which voters indicated their choices on computer punch cards. After polls were closed, these cards were transported to countywide tabulation centers in locked and sealed ballot boxes. The ballots were removed by teams of workers, who arranged them for feeding into the computer and noted in log books the time when ballot boxes were opened. Plaintiffs cite as evidence of election fraud the fact that the log shows one box was opened after the computer tabulation was printed out.

Plaintiffs' main allegations focus on events at the central tabulation center for Kanawha County. They rely largely on the testimony of Walter Price, incumbent candidate for the House of Delegates who was at the center on election night. Price testified that he observed Margaret Miller manipulating computer toggle switches during the election count, purportedly in an attempt to alter vote counts. He saw an "unknown gentleman"--whom plaintiffs identify as Carl Clough--placing a phone receiver into his briefcase. Plaintiffs suggest that this activity is consistent with the use of a portable modem, perhaps in an effort to change vote totals. Price also testified that Stephen Miller took computer cards from his coat pocket and gave them to his wife, who allegedly fed the cards into the computer.

Finally, plaintiffs assert that numerous irregularities occurred after the election, including improper handling of the ballots and release of exact returns prior to the canvass, and destruction of ballots that violated the terms of W.Va. Code Sec. 3-6-9. Plaintiffs make similar, though less detailed, allegations with respect to the election process in Boone County.

The district court made numerous rulings that narrowed the scope of this litigation. After ordering a complaint with more detailed allegations, the court found the amended complaint barely adequate to survive a motion to dismiss, except as to defendant Lloyd. 1 The court also held that plaintiffs' action came within the two-year limitations period because it alleged a conspiracy with wrongful acts as late as February 8, 1981. This holding, however, limited plaintiffs' case to the conspiracy and removed individual acts of defendants from the litigation.

After discovery, the court granted summary judgment in favor of defendant Cavacini, alleged to have had possession of unauthorized election returns. It also found the allegations of a Boone County conspiracy to be time barred, and accordingly granted summary judgment as to defenda...

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