Monroe County Mojo

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.