Monroe County Mojo

ABERDEEN - The Aberdeen Executive Democratic Committee has reversed its earlier decision for a new election and named Wilchie Clay the Ward 2 alderman.

The move came less than a week after the committee called for another runoff in Ward 2 due to possible voter fraud.

“From this examination of all relevant evidence, it is the finding of the committee that three illegal absentee votes were cast for Cloyd Garth and therefore, Wilchie Clay is declared winner of the second primary as alderman of Ward 2, city of Aberdeen, Mississippi, by a vote of 263 to 261 …” said committee chairman Coy Flynn.

The controversy started on April 22 when Garth, the incumbent, defeated Clay by one vote in the runoff election. After recounting the votes the following day, the committee found three residents voted twice in Ward 2. All three voters, as well as three more individuals, were subpoenaed for questioning on Friday. After hearing the testimony, the committee sent a request for a new election date to a city judge.

Before a judge could set a date, the committee reversed the decision.

“I think this is totally unjust,” said Garth. “They (executive committee) had no grounds to stand upon. I talked to an attorney in Washington, D.C., and he said they have no grounds to do what they did and that it is totally illegal. They told me that they were going to throw out three votes and declare Mr. Clay the winner. When I asked why they were doing this, Coy Flynn told me that they didn’t have the money to go to court. You cannot take away this when I was the winner. Not only do I plan to pursue it legally, I may also sue the committee members personally and press criminal charges against them.”

Clay could not be reached for comment. 

From The Aberdeen Democratic Executive Committee:

The City Of Aberdeen Democratic Executive Committee, at a special called meeting held on Tuesday, April 29, 2008, re-examined all of the evidence concerning the Second Primary Election held on April 22, 2008 for Ward Two Alderman.

From this examination of all relevant evidence, it is the finding of the Committee that three (3) illegal absentee ballots were cast for Cloyd Garth and therefore, Wilchie Clay is declared the winner of the Second Primary as Alderman of Ward Two, City of Aberdeen, Mississippi by a vote of 263 to 261 for Cloyd Garth.

As of 4PM Monday, the hearing on the Ward 2 election has not been held. 

I will give you an update when I know more.

The City of Aberdeen Democratic Executive Committee has met Tuesday, April 22, Wednesday, April 23 and Friday, April 25 and has examined the ballot box, ballots and heard testimony from witnesses concerning the second primary election for Alderman Ward 2.

From the examination, it appears to the Committee irregularities occurred at the polls wherein three (3) voters cast ballots bt absentee ballot and also voted in person at the polls on Tuesday, April 22. It appears that the absentee ballots cast by those individuals were counted in the vote total.

When the Committee from its examination found that three absentee ballots were erroneously received as valid, legal votes, a clear doubt was left as to whether the results represented the true will of the people. These three ballots make the one vote difference between the candidates a legitimate question as to who won the election.

The Committee will be petitioning the Court to set a date for a Special Primary Election date in May of 2008 and request the Court to direct that the winner of that election be declared as the duly elected Alderman of Ward Two.

ABERDEEN–

Three more subpoenaed individuals appeared before the Aberdeen Democratic Executive Committee Friday afternoon in a closed session. No charges were filed as a result of the meeting.

“We subpoenaed three more people and we talked to them,”  said committee Chairman Coy Flynn. “We got some good answers from them, but there will still not be anyone charged with criminal activity. We are looking to set the election on Tuesday, May 6, but we are waiting on the circuit judge to approve the date.”

Flynn stated that at the present time, no more individuals would subpoenaed for questioning. He would also not comment on the names of the individuals questioned during  the afternoon session.

Although two of three would not offer their names nor make statements, Terry Morgan agreed to speak with the Monroe County Journal.

“I was subpoenaed today around 11 AM,” stated Morgan. “I had to leave work to come to here (City Hall). What they (executive committee) are  trying to do is keep Mr. Garth from winning the election. There are several people in there that are biased. Mr. Garth won the race fair and square and this is set up to keep him from winning the race.”

According to Morgan, the committee’s line of questioning did not regard the number of votes he cast.

“They accused me of taking people to the polls form Ward 1 to Ward 2. I told them that I did take people to vote in both wards — I did do that. But, I was taking people for other candidates that were in Ward 1 like the police chief. I take people all over the place to vote. But I do make sure that they are eligible to vote. The didn’t press charges againts me because they don’t have anything on me,” said Morgan.

ABERDEEN–

After being subpoenaed by the Aberdeen Democratic Executive Committee, three Aberdeen men were not charged with voter fraud for discrepancies found in the Ward 2 Alderman election during the morning session.

“We met this morning and talked to three men,” stated Coy Flynn, committee chairman. “We are still looking into it. The situation has been cleared up some at this point, but there is still some more investigation going on and we will be talking to a few other people. Until we find out more about the situation and what happened and why, we will not be making comments on who they are at this time.”

The three men in question were Ryan Love, 21, Clayton Gates, 21 and Robert Wilson, 51.

“I actually voted twice, but it was all a mistake,” said Love. “I wasn’t trying to cheat for anybody. I filled out an affidavit and then they (unknown campaign workers) came back and told me that I needed to vote again, so, I voted again at the polls. It was a mistake. I’m not in any trouble. They couldn’t find me on the books, so I voted affidavit the first time.

According to Love, this was the first election that he had voted in. “I think the poll workers and the campaign people could do a better job. When they came to pick me up to vote, they should have known that I had already voted.”

City of Aberdeen employee Gates also declared his innocence.

“It was just a big misunderstanding,”said Gates, who works for the city’s street department. “I came up here on a Saturday morning, but I didn’t know that it was a runoff, I was thinking it was for the election. So, I voted again. It was just a big misunderstanding. I didn’t know that both that Saturday and that Tuesday was the runoff.”

I made a mistake and I voted twice,” said Wilson. “I just had forgot that I had voted the first time. That’s all there is to it. You can’t make something out of nothing.”

The election between Incumbent Cloyd Garth and Wilchie Clay was decided by one vote in Garth’s favor Tuesday night. On Wednesday, the discrepancies were found during an executive session by the committee. A decision was made to have another runoff election in Ward 2.

Flynn noted Friday morning that the runoff date had yet to be determined, The committee will reconvene at 1 PM.

ABERDEEN-

What we know: Three subpoenas were issued today regarding the discrepancies in the Ward 2 Alderman runoff election.

Who were they? We will find out after the Democratic Executive Committee meets tomorrow at 9 AM.

Allegations and accusations are flying. We will see…

MONROE MOJO WILL DO ITS BEST TO LIVE-BLOG TOMORROW’S EVENTS AS THEY UNFOLD

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Jeff Clark

ABERDEEN — The Democratic Executive Committee of Aberdeen decided Wednesday not to certify votes in the Ward 2 Alderman Race.

“In Ward 2, we found some discrepancies,” stated committee spokesperson Bob Miller. “We are not going to accept that (the alderman race) as of right now. We are going to have another meeting Friday morning at nine because we had three people that voted twice, both as an absentee and during the election.

The controversy stems from Tuesday’s runoff election in which Incumbent Cloyd Garth defeated Wilchie Clay by one vote, 264 to 263. Clay had no comment at press time.

“We had three people that voted twice,” said Coy Flynn, committee chairman. “That’s voter fraud and we are not going to certify Mr. Garth or Mr. Clay either one. As you know, Mr. Garth won by one vote after we counted the absentee ballots. We counted three absentee ballots that had already been voted during the day. We are going to talk to those people on Friday, I hope.”

Flynn also stated that he could not comment on whether or not legal action would be taken in the matter.

A date has not yet been set for the second Ward 2 runoff.

Henry Randle was elected Aberdeen’s police chief in Tuesday’s runoff election. Randle defeated Quinell Shumpert 1,122 votes to 705.

“First of all, I want to thank God,”said Randle Tuesday night. “I also want to thank my family and supporters and it’s time to get down to business and try and make this city one.” Randle will replace current police chief Walter Sykes when he is sworn into office in May.

Also in Tuesday’s runoff, incumbent Cloyd Garth narrowly defeated former Monroe County Supervisor Wilchie Clay in the Ward 2 alderman’s race. Garth defeated Clay by one vote, 264 to 263.

“I want to thank all of my supporters,” Garth said. “This wasn’t my first close race and I look forward to continuing to serve the people of the city.”

The runoff election stems from the April 1 Democratic primary which brought about change in a number of city races. Incumbent mayor Cecil Belle was defeated by Jim Ballard, who will face Independent candidate Steve Lance in the general election on Tuesday, May 6.

In the Ward 3 alderman race David Ewing defeated Dwight Stevens, Roger Cooperwood and Jarrod Jones. Longtime Ward 3 Alderman Willie Cook failed to qualify for the election. Incumbent Brunson Odom was defeated by Randy Nichols in the Ward 4 alderman race and John Allen defeated Henry Calvert and Antonio Rogers to win the alderman position in Ward 5. Incumbent alderman Jim Buffington withdrew from the election in Ward 5.

Alsonso Sykes was the only incumbent to win his race. Sykes defeated Robert Devaull and Donald Dahlem to retain his position as alderman in Ward 1. All Tuesday vote totals are unofficial until certified by the Democratic Executive Committee.