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"You would go there and there would be people everywhere," said Albert Baisden, owner of a retired trucking company in Dingess, recalling the time of the elections in the 1950s. "You had to to make your way through the crowd to vote. You could not find a parking space. Everyone grabbed you by the right arm, by the left arm, saying: "Vote for me!
At the time, this part of West Virginia was also more vibrant. Ms. Hill recalled that her hotel was full almost every night, mostly with men working in mine construction. She remembers that they had the habit of removing their work boots from their trucks and changing into slippers so as not to leave traces of mud on her carpet.
But in the space of a generation, the sense of community in the city has collapsed, she said. Hill said she stole 27 flat-screen TVs in her room. Finally, she stopped replacing them. Even the cushions on the sofa in his hall were stolen; a garden chair cushion is in their place.
"We have nothing now," said Mrs. Hill, sitting in the lobby of the hotel, a spacious room with high ceilings and paneling adorned with teapots and cuckoos. "Everything is gone."
The vote has also dropped. The mid-term elections of 1998 was the first time in Mrs. Hill's life that she was not voting. She was not alone: according to Dr. McDonald's, only 29 percent of eligible western West Virginia residents voted that year.
According to Mr. Highton, the most decisive factor in voting is political commitment. Those who are interested in politics – whether they grew up in families that followed it or developed an interest in adulthood – tend to vote, did they? he declares.
"It's like being a sports fan," he said. "Some people just are not."
Clara Bender, 69, a waitress in Madison, has never voted.
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