Two Perry County candidates in the November, 2008 election are accused of buying votes and mail fraud.

The chairman of the Democratic party, Chester Jones, and former judge executive Sherman Neace were indicted by a federal grand jury.

Jones said he did nothing illegal.

Chester Jones and Sherman Neace are accused of diverting $7,500 from the state democratic party and using it to buy votes for themselves.

The indictment also says they sent a false report to the state election finance agency to cover up the scheme.

Jones says it's not true.

“All that money was used for all the party; local, state, and national. We had 73 campaign workers hired to do that, work for the whole party, not just on the local race,” Jones said.

Jones, a former state representative and circuit clerk, was trying to keep his seat on the county school board and lost.

Neace, a former three term judge executive, lost his race for magistrate.

He was trying to make a political comeback after he was sentenced to 15 months in prison in 2000 when he admitted that when he was judge executive, he sold used cars to the county at inflated prices and routed the transactions through other dealers.

Jones says he believes federal investigators were determined to indict both of them.

“The FBI can indict just about anybody they want to! The only difference between the FBI and Nazi Germany is that they simply have different colored shirts. They use the same tactics over and over,” Jones said.

Jones and Neace are expected to be arraigned July 8th.

We also tried to reach Sherman Neace and were told he is out of town until Friday and unavailable.

The indictment also says other people were involved in the vote fraud.