Athens County authorities are investigating whether local Democratic Party officials illegally offered a $5 bounty to Ohio University students to bring friends to the polls today.

Susan Gwinn, the county party chairwoman, said this morning that such a plan was discussed with members of the OU College Democrats, but that no agreement was reached.

The county party agreed to pay some students for get-out-the-vote efforts, but "this whole idea that somebody was paying people to vote is ridiculous," she said.

The flap surfaced when Kellie Galan, vice president of the college Democrats, sent out an e-mail on Friday urging students to gather at 1 p.m. today to march to the polls.

"Remember, if you bring a friend from 4th Ward, they are more then a friend, they're 5 bucks!" she wrote.

The 4th Ward in Athens features a heated city council race between appointed Democrat incumbent Christine Fahl and Republican challenger Randy Morris.

Athens County Prosecutor C. David Warren said today that he was investigating the matter to determine if any elections laws may have been violated.

Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern said in a statement: "I urge Athens County Chairwoman Susan Gwinn to suspend the program immediately and not issue any payments that may have been planned. I call for a complete investigation and prosecution for any wrongdoing in this case."

Chris Mullen, spokesman for the OU College Democrats, wrote in a statement that the group denies any misconduct and fixed blame on the county party.

The get-out-the-vote effort was an effort by the county party "to compensate volunteers financially for their time spent canvassing," he said.

No member of the group has been paid by the county party and "under no circumstances will we have any future involvement in such a program," he said.

Athens County Republicn Party Chairman Pete Couladis seconded calls for an investigation by Warren and elections officials.

"If money was being paid or offered by the College Democrats to college students or anyone else to vote, this is a serious violation of Ohio's election laws," he said.

Gwinn said "the whole situation has been blown out of proportion. I have no idea why (Galan) wrote that e-mail. There's really nothing going on here."

Gwinn is under fire after being indicted on six counts, including theft in office and money laundering, for allegedly using her personal checking account to conceal the sources of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions. She lost to Warren in the 2008 Democratic primary for county prosecutor.