Wayne County Commissioner, Jeff Maddox, recused himself officially last night from a case he is personally involved in. Maddox is bringing to light this year’s commissioner race where Republican Enoch “Jay” Marcum, resides, to find out if he used his legitimate address when filing for election.
Commissioner, Jeff Maddox
Maddox is now contesting the election stating he doesn’t want his seat back just to “right a wrong”. The complaint states that Maddox alleges his opponent, Marcum, did not use his actual address in an effort to qualify for the seat, which could have only gone to someone who lives in district one or two. The other commissioners, Travis Thompson and Robert Thompson, represent districts three and four.
“He used his sister’s address in Kenova,” Maddox said. “The reason that he did that – he would not have been eligible to run for the open seat if he used his actual address because it was in an occupied district.”
Republican Enoch “Jay” Marcum
The Wayne County Republican Executive Committee released the following statement on social media:
Democrats are attempting to overthrow the election results for County Commission and Huntington City Council. Jeff Maddox and other democrats in Huntington are using court action to attempt to unseat Jay Marcum, Jason Arthur and Stacy Jo Holley. The democrats lost and lost big and trying to make a mockery of our elections. This is a deliberate attack on Republicans. Plan on being at hearings to protest these attempts. The first is at Wayne County Commission chamber December 9 at 10am. The second is at Huntington City Council Chamber Dec. 16 at 5:30 pm. FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT!!!!!
Maddox said. “The rules are in the West Virginia code. It’s really simple. If you can read, you can run for any office you want, but don’t cheat.
The county commission, without Maddox, will preside over the hearings. The commission voted on Monday to retain attorney Ryan Donovan, who represented Mingo County in their election challenge, to help them through this process. They approved paying him $15,000 for his services.
Commissioner Robert Thompson said they want to do this as much ‘by the book’ as possible. He was asked what would happen if they do find Marcum falsified his address and Maddox does not want the seat.
Thompson said anything is speculation at this point, but in that case, they would have to appoint someone. “If that happened, any time there’s a vacancy, it would fall upon the county commission to fill that vacancy,”.
A hearing has been scheduled for Jan. 6 at 1 p.m.
