In a town election where some votes were reportedly bought and others were stolen, whoever licked the envelope containing a disputed absentee ballot might also have sealed his own fate.

Authorities have obtained a saliva sample from a supporter of one of the candidates for Appalachia Town Council in May 2004. They hope to use DNA testing to determine whether the man sealed an absentee ballot that was reportedly taken from a voter's mailbox, filled out and fraudulently submitted in her name.

The sample was taken from the man late last year, according to a search warrant filed in Wise County Circuit Court.

The warrant details an encounter between the man and Christina McKinney, the resident of a government-subsidized apartment complex whose allegations of vote buying and ballot theft launched a state police investigation nearly two years ago.

McKinney has said a supporter of one of the seven council candidates came campaigning through her neighborhood in April 2004, offering cigarettes and six packs of beer to residents if they voted a certain way.

After the man helped McKinney register to vote and apply for an absentee ballot, a second supporter -- the one named in the search warrant -- later came by her apartment to see if the ballot had arrived in the mail.

McKinney gave the man a key to her mailbox, according to the warrant, and was later told by him that "they had taken care of things and voted her."

Angry that the first vote she would ever cast had been taken from her, McKinney ended up swearing in an affidavit that the mail-in ballot received by the voter registrar's office in her name did not come from her.

The mail-in ballot is being held by authorities, who plan to test it for the man's DNA as well as his fingerprints. The man is not being named by The Roanoke Times because he has not been charged.

What happened to McKinney was just the beginning for investigators, who have spent nearly two years looking into similar allegations from other voters in Appalachia, a town of 1,800 in far Southwest Virginia where political feuds can run as deep as its surrounding coal mines.

Tim McAfee, a Norton attorney appointed special prosecutor in the case last year, would not comment in detail Tuesday -- except to say that he and police have been very busy in recent months.

"If the public could look over our shoulder at what we're doing, I think they would be pleased at the thoroughness of our investigation," McAfee said.

In fact, the case has grown so large that a judge recently appointed a second prosecutor at McAfee's request. Gregory Stewart of Norton was named in a Jan. 9 order from Circuit Judge Tammy McElyea to assist McAfee in "preparing any necessary indictments to be presented to the grand jury."

It is still unclear when -- or even if -- the case might go to a grand jury.

According to the search warrant, the suspected crime is aiding and abetting in violating absentee voting procedures, a felony that carries up to 10 years in prison.

The same charge was brought last year in neighboring Scott County, where the ex-mayor of Gate City is scheduled to be tried next month on allegations that he manipulated the absentee vote to win another term. In both Gate City and Appalachia, about one out of every five votes was cast by absentee ballot -- nearly four times the state average.

In Wise County, McAfee was appointed special prosecutor last year after Commonwealth's Attorney Chad Dotson discovered that the legal work he does part time for the town of Appalachia posed a conflict of interest.

Before stepping down, Dotson said he was ready to convene a special grand jury to hear allegations of vote buying and ballot theft. McAfee, however, has indicated he may skip the special grand jury and take the results of an investigation directly to a regular grand jury.

If the case were to include DNA evidence, it would be one of the relatively few nonviolent crimes subjected to the process, McAfee said. DNA testing is usually used to link a suspect to blood or other biological evidence from crimes such as homicide or rape.

The search warrant used to obtain the man's saliva and fingerprints makes no mention of vote buying.

McKinney said in an interview last year that she declined the man's offer to support his candidate in exchange for cigarettes and fried pork skins, which she happened to be eating at the time.

Other residents of the Inman Village apartment complex received the same pitch, McKinney said. At the time, several other residents confirmed her account.