http://tuscaloosanews.com

It was a happy scene Tuesday outside the voting precinct in Greensboro, and quite telling. Gathered under a tent Tuesday afternoon, during the intermittent rain, were Johnnie Washington — counted as the winner in the election for mayor — and three of his pals: Aaron Evans, Gay Nell Tinker and Valada Paige Banks.

It was telling because Washington’s margin of victory — 42 votes — was within the range of absentee ballots. Washington got 61 of the 90 absentee ballots cast for mayor.

It was also telling because Evans is a former Greensboro city councilman convicted of 15 counts of voting fraud in 1998, while Tinker and Banks are under indictment for voter fraud involving absentee ballots.

Washington had counted himself the winner of the mayoral election in Greensboro in 2004. An investigation found absentee ballots had been cast using the names of people who had no idea they were on the absentee list and many of the addresses used were false. In several cases, two absentee ballots had the same voter’s name. Courts ultimately awarded the contest to his challenger, Vanessa Hill, halfway through the office term.

‘I really wish better for the people of Greensboro,’ Hill said Tuesday, after the unofficial tally indicted she would lose her bid for re-election.

We also hope for a better future for the people of Greensboro and other communities across West Alabama, where democracy is undermined by election fraud.

Many of these voters, or their parents, were part of the civil rights struggle that won access to the ballot box. It is a cruel irony that some elections continue to be called into question, not through the efforts of a minority of white voters to re-establish illegitimate control, but by a handful of black leaders who seek to maintain their power.

This is not to say that Washington did not win legitimately. He had a narrow nine-vote margin among the votes cast at Greensboro’s polling place Tuesday, before absentee votes were counted.

It is, however, fair to say that absentee ballots — which can be manipulated with more impunity than votes cast in person — play too great a role in elections across West Alabama. Greensboro’s absentee ballots in this election represented almost 14 percent of the total, while across the state they typically account for less than 5 percent of the total.

The issue is not being ignored.

Investigators from the U.S. Justice Department were in Marion, in neighboring Perry County, to monitor elections Tuesday.

Grassroots organizations such as Greensboro Citizens for Fair Elections have begun to press for criminal investigations of voting fraud and educate citizens about their rights and responsibilities.

Still, through apathy, ignorance or intimidation, the problem continues. And those who benefit from and perpetrate voter fraud continue to enjoy a good time under the tent together.

Tom Gordon
News staff writer
http://al.com

In the Black Belt towns of Marion and Greensboro, today’s mayoral elections basically will be a rerun of what they were four years ago, and voters are waiting to see if they will be settled just as the 2004 mayoral elections were – after a protracted legal dispute over absentee ballots.

If the number of absentee ballot applications is any indication, absentee votes will again play a big role in determining Marion’s next mayor, but they may not figure as prominently this time in Greensboro.

In the Perry County seat of Marion, a town of 3,800, Mayor Tony Long is facing another challenge from a local attorney, Robert Bryant. By last week’s deadline, the city clerk’s office had received 903 absentee ballot applications. Nearly 830 ballots were cast in the 2004 mayoral election.

In the Hale County seat of Greensboro, a town of 2,800, incumbent Vanessa Hill is again facing local funeral home operator Johnnie B. Washington. By the close of business Thursday, the city clerk had received 131 absentee applications. More than 300 ballots were cast in 2004.

Absentee ballots have long been a big election-year factor in much of Alabama’s Black Belt. While the statewide average has been around 3 percent, in counties such as Perry absentees have sometimes amounted to a third of the total vote, or higher.

“I think it’s an effort by certain people to control the vote,” said UAB history professor Sam Webb. “They get people to vote absentee and they may be legitimately voting absentee, but … as they collect their ballot, (they) kind of tell them how to vote.”

The Justice Department said it is dispatching observers to monitor elections in Marion, as well as Bayou La Batre in Mobile County, today.

Time and again, absentee ballots have been the difference between winning and losing for Black Belt political candidates. Political activists have been tried and in some cases convicted of vote fraud in connection with the casting of questionable absentee ballots. Earlier this year, the state attorney general’s office launched an investigation of absentee voting in Perry County’s June 3 primary. In Hale County, a grand jury this year indicted former Circuit Clerk Gay Nell Tinker on vote fraud charges linked to absentee ballots in a 2005 special election.

In the Black Belt, it is not unusual for losing candidates to contest their defeats by challenging the winner’s absentee votes. Election challenges over absentee votes followed the Aug. 24, 2004, mayoral election in Marion and the Sept. 15, 2004, mayoral runoff in Greensboro.

In the Marion mayor’s race, nearly 40 percent of the 2,156 votes cast were absentee and Long and Bryant were the dominant candidates in a three-man field. Long led Bryant by a margin of 1,120 votes to 997 and was subsequently declared the winner. Absentees made up 471 of Long’s votes, or 42 percent. Absentees made up 357, or 36 percent of Bryant’s votes.

Bryant contested the result, a trial resulted and nearly two years later, Circuit Judge Marvin Wiggins ordered a new mayoral runoff, declaring that neither Long nor Bryant had received the necessary majority of legal votes.

The biggest part of Wiggins’ ruling was his decision that 153 of Long’s absentee votes could not be counted because of irregularities, and 96 of those were tossed out because the applications did not bear proper addresses. The address on a number of applications was the same post office box. Last April, the state Supreme Court upheld Wiggins’ order for a new election, and it took place June 10. Long finished ahead, 948 to 680, and nearly half of his votes were absentees. Bryant’s supporters have questioned the legality of some of them.

It took more than two years for Greensboro to settle its mayoral dispute.

Hill, after spending years in Nashville in the recording business, returned to Greensboro to care for her ailing mother and decided to run for mayor. In the Sept. 15, 2004, runoff, she trailed Washington by 90 votes, and Washington’s apparent victory was due to 251 absentee votes, five times the number Hill received.

While Hill challenged the runoff outcome, Washington was sworn in and began to serve as Greensboro’s mayor.

During the dispute, Montgomery County Circuit Judge William Shashy ordered the attorney general’s office to take charge of the runoff ballots. He appointed Montgomery lawyer James Anderson, an expert in election law, as a special master to hear the case. On Jan. 23, 2006, Anderson ruled that Washington had received at least 148 illegal absentee votes and Hill at least eight. With the absentee votes removed, Anderson said, Hill had won the runoff, with 664 votes to 614 for Washington.

Shashy upheld Anderson’s findings, and the Alabama Supreme Court upheld him the following December. More than 102 of Washington’s absentee votes were thrown out because they bore no required postmark, and 17 more were tossed after testimony from a handwriting expert that the voter signatures were forged.

Voters can vote absentee if they will be out of their home county on election day, if an illness or physical disability will keep them from the polls, or if they have a work shift of at least 10 hours that corresponds with polling place hours. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Secretary of State Beth Chapman is calling on all secretaries of state across the nation to form Voter Fraud Units in their states.

Chapman, who has led the effort in stopping voter fraud in Alabama, has received many comments from other secretaries of state and citizens outside of Alabama about experiencing some of the same problems Alabama has recently had with voter fraud. Chapman is working with the state Attorney General’s Office and the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate voter fraud in several Black Belt counties.

“We have a voter registration office to assist and encourage all eligible citizens in our states to vote. It only makes sense that we should work to protect that right by making every attempt to stop those who would attempt to cheat the very system we encourage all citizens to use,” Chapman said. “Therefore, there is a definite need for a Voter Fraud Unit to exist in the Secretary of State’s Office.”

Chapman was the first secretary of state in the nation to organize such a unit and has since been followed by other states.

The Voter Fraud Unit in Chapman’s office has received numerous allegations from across the state and has presented valuable information and is assisting the Department of Justice and the Attorney General’s Office in “every possible effort to stop voter fraud.”

Chapman’s Voter Fraud Unit can be reached by calling 1-800-274-VOTE or by visiting www.stopvoterfraudnow.com.

–posted by Markeshia Ricks

MONTGOMERY – Secretary of State Beth Chapman has announced a new Voter Fraud Unit within the Secretary of State’s office dedicated to dealing with reports of voter fraud. With claims of voter fraud continuing to come in from the June 3rd primary, Secretary Chapman has appointed members of her legal and elections staff to be trained to speak with those individuals who have such reports. “It is important for the citizens of Alabama who have reports of voter fraud to know that someone is here to listen and to gather the information in a manner which complies with the law. It is also important for these individuals to know that appropriate action is being taken with their complaint” Chapman stated. Secretary Chapman emphasized that all reports will be kept confidential.

In conjunction with the new Voter Fraud Unit, Secretary of State Beth Chapman has also announced her office’s new website and toll free number for citizens to report incidents of voter fraud. The site will provide a report/complaint form that will be collected and reviewed by the Secretary of State and the Voter Fraud Unit and forwarded to the Attorney General for further review.

The website www.StopVoterFraudNow.com is up and running today and available for reports or confidential meetings to be scheduled to report such abuse.

“My staff and I are proud to provide these tools for people to use to report voter fraud,” Chapman said. “We will continue to rattle the swords of democracy until voter fraud is stopped in Alabama.”

By Robert DeWitt
Staff Writer

Staff photo | Robert DeWitt

Mike Jeffries, shown washing a pickup outside his detail shop in Greensboro on Thursday, says he doesn’t think the former Circuit Clerk Gay Nell Tinker did anything wrong and that the voter fraud investigation was racially motivated.

GREENSBORO | It seems only natural that the arrest of former Hale County Circuit Clerk Gay Nell Tinker on charges of voter fraud would be the talk of the town.

But a lot of people in Hale County aren’t talking.

Outside the Sawyerville Convenience Store, a middle-aged black man wearing a sport coat over a T-shirt just shakes his head when he hears the topic.

‘No, not me,’ he said when asked his name. ‘I don’t get into that.’

A middle-aged white man in jeans, a denim shirt and ball cap pauses over his meal at the Mustang Oil café in Greensboro and shakes his head in much the same way. He knows why he won’t involve himself in the subject and thinks he knows why others won’t either.

‘Why? Because they’re not going to do a thing to them,’ he said, referring to the three people, including Tinker, who were indicted on voter fraud charges. ‘They’re going to walk free, and they’re guilty.’

Tinker, Rosie Lyles and Valada Paige Banks, all black, have been charged with crimes stemming from alleged voter fraud. The indictments come after a tumultuous decade during which thousands of the county’s absentee ballots became the deciding votes in municipal and county elections.

In that time, a bank where absentee ballots had been stored for the district attorney burned in an arson that remains unsolved and the Greensboro mayoral election was overturned by the courts. A judge issued an arrest warrant for the probate judge and an attorney general’s investigator looking into voter fraud allegations was thrown in jail.

Opposing camps fired salvos at each other, one charging fraud while the other claimed racism. Alabama’s secretary of state Beth Chapman made the county her poster child for election reform and civil rights activist Al Sharpton came to town to whip up support for Lyles and Banks.

Public on edge

Such events have left people feeling too sensitive to talk about it openly. Sitting at his table at the Mustang, Big Ray Duncan, who operates the local farmer’s co-op, thinks he understands why.

‘Anything we say may come across as racist in this day and time,’ said Duncan, who is white. ‘Nobody wants to cause any more trouble in a little town like this.’

Merchants, both black and white, are particularly sensitive. They say it would be bad for business to talk.

One young black man sitting outside his store is insistent that the store’s name not appear in print.

‘This isn’t going to be in there?’ he said, pointing up to the sign above him bearing the store’s name.

For all their reluctance, people in Hale County are not unfriendly or uninformed. And some do speak up. Mike Jeffries shrugged and said he had nothing to hide as he washed a pickup at his detail stand.

‘Back when this first happened, we had the same case with the white people,’ said Jeffries, who is black. ‘When that happened, we couldn’t get anybody down here to investigate. When black people get into office they always find something wrong. You got all these people coming down here to investigate.’

Jeffries doesn’t think Tinker did anything wrong.

‘She never did anything but try to help the community,’ he said.

Among the most outspoken critics of the voter fraud investigation is state Sen. Bobby Singleton, Tinker’s ex-husband and a major beneficiary of absentee votes. He could not be reached for comment.

Down the street from Jeffries’ detail shop, Verlie Campbell enjoyed the evening sun in a chair outside. An Ohio native, he said he was shocked at some of the things he saw going on.

‘Folks going into vote and they find out somebody’s already voted in their name, that’s wrong,’ said Campbell, who is black. He believes voter fraud is a serious matter and ought to be investigated.

Perry Beasley of Greensboro believes the racism charges just don’t hold water.

‘The majority of the people who vote over here are black,’ said Beasley, who is white. ‘All of the candidates involved are black. The vast majority of the people who vote over here, black and white, are Democrats. It’s funny how they try to make this into something racial.’

Beverly Bonds of Greensboro agreed.

‘This is about right and wrong,’ said Bonds, who is also white. ‘Voter fraud is voter fraud.’

Push for action

Bonds and Beasley are members of the Democracy Defense League, an organization founded to fight voter fraud in Hale County. They say the indictments are a start.

‘It’s significant in the sense that we may finally be seeing the criminal justice system get involved in this,’ Beasley said.

Probate Judge Leland Avery, who has found himself in the center of the storm at times, agreed.

‘I’ve been talking to the attorney general’s office since 1998 about the way they do absentee ballots here,’ Avery said. ‘I’m grateful to Troy King that he’d come down and investigate.’

He said he’s been frustrated at times, but now he feels progress is being made.

‘Everybody has been waiting on them to do something about voter fraud,’ Avery said.

Some people believe it’s been too long coming.

‘If the indictments don’t get turned into a trial soon, people are going to say, ‘So what?’ ‘ said Ronny Crawford, a member of the Democracy Defense League and chairman of the county’s Democratic Executive Committee. ‘When’s it going to come to fruition?’

People want to see results, Crawford said.

‘A guy goes down here and sticks up a gas station and he’s in jail in 18 months,’ Crawford said. ‘This has been under investigation for three and a half years.’

But Bonds observed the proceedings involved in overturning the mayoral election. It is by necessity a lengthy process, she said.

‘There are so many facets to absentee ballots,’ Bonds said. ‘There are so many parts of it that have to be investigated. You have to get handwriting samples for forgery and all of these other details.’

That’s why it’s essential to change elections laws, making voter fraud harder to commit and penalties for committing it stiffer, Beasley said.

‘The word ‘thug’ is gender- neutral,’ Beasley said. ‘When some thug steals a vote that 1.4 million people sacrificed their lives for, that thug deserves far worse than the criminal justice system offers.’

The Democracy Defense League, which has both black and white members, has worked to expand statewide because they say voter fraud is a widespread problem. Complaints have come from Mobile, Baldwin, Jefferson, Monroe, Fayette, Barbour and other counties.

‘The reason it’s chronic over here is that some of the people who have used illegal means to gain office now sit in positions of public trust,’ Beasley said. ‘They’re in position to make it more difficult to identify voter fraud and they’re in position to make it more difficult to prosecute voter fraud.’

He wants any crime committed with the intent of altering an election made a Class A felony. Anyone convicted would serve at least six and a half years, said Beasley, a former agent with the Alabama Bureau of Investigation.

‘This is not stealing a car,’ Beasley said. ‘This goes back to this country being a democratic republic. People have to have trust in their government. People cannot trust their government if they don’t have faith and trust in the electoral process.

Troy King
Alabama Attorney General

(MONTGOMERY)—Attorney General Troy King today announced the arrest of former Hale County Circuit Clerk Gay Nell Tinker for multiple felony charges relating to voter fraud. Tinker, also known as Gay Singleton, was arrested today by agents of the Attorney General’s Office and the Hale County Sheriff’s Office and taken to the Hale County Jail.

Attorney General King’s Office presented evidence to a Hale County grand jury yesterday, resulting in a 13-count indictment* against Tinker. Specifically, the indictment charges Tinker with:

• nine counts of second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument—an absentee voter affidavit—in violation of Section 13A-9-6 of the Code of Alabama;
• two counts of promoting illegal absentee voting—by intentionally soliciting or otherwise promoting illegal absentee voting —in violation of Section 17-10-17 of the Code of Alabama; and
• two counts of first-degree perjury, by falsely certifying as to who signed an absentee voter affidavit.

“Vote fraud is a serious crime. It is not a crime against just an individual voter or a particular candidate. It is a crime against democracy, itself. When it is committed – as charged in these indictments – by the very custodian of the election system, a circuit clerk, it is even more grievous,” stated Attorney General King.

“So long as we are willing to commit soldiers to fight and die to advance democracy, those soldiers should at least be able to expect those of us they left behind to keep those things they are bleeding for safe back here at home. ” No further information about the investigation or about Tinker’s alleged crimes other than that stated in the indictment may be released at this time.

If convicted, Tinker faces a maximum penalty of ten years of imprisonment and a fine of up to $5,000 for each count of second-degree possession of a forged instrument, a class C felony; two years of imprisonment and a fine of up to $2,000 for each count of promoting illegal absentee voting, an unclassified felony; and ten years of imprisonment and a fine of up to $5,000 for each count of perjury, a class C felony.

*An indictment is merely an accusation. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Troy King
Alabama Attorney General

(MONTGOMERY) ”Attorney General Troy King announced today that the Court of Criminal Appeals has ordered Hale County Circuit Court Judge Marvin Wiggins to recuse himself from a case involving an investigation of voter fraud in Hale County. Attorney General King stated in his motion that Wiggins “who has a history of obstructing voter fraud investigations*, has revealed his personal bias against the State and its investigation and/or his commitment to impede this investigation and thereby protect members of his family.”

Attorney General King is investigating voter fraud in Hale County with suspected violations during 2004 and 2005 involving illegal absentee voting. Part of the investigation is comparing examples of the suspects’ handwriting with that on the affidavits. Judge Wiggins had blocked a search warrant and subpoenas to obtain handwriting samples, and took other actions that delayed and impeded the investigation.

The Attorney General’s investigation has resulted in indictments returned by a Hale County grand jury against two individuals, and an investigation continues that involves numerous other suspects, including relatives of Judge Wiggins. The particular case in which the Attorney General seeks to have Wiggins removed is Millarstine Coleman v. Troy King, Attorney General, which involves a search warrant and subpoenas for handwriting. Attorney General King asserted that Judge Wiggins’ actions in this matter were detrimental to the investigation and demonstrated that Judge Wiggins could not be considered impartial.

Among the obstacles encountered by the Attorney General’s Office was an incident during the early stages of the investigation involving Gay Nell Tinker, who is Judge Wiggins’ sister. Tinker was the Hale County Circuit Clerk and absentee election manager. In her capacity as a magistrate and acting on a complaint by her (and Judge Wiggins’) first cousin Carrie Reaves, Tinker issued an arrest warrant charging an Attorney General investigator with harassment for serving a subpoena on Reaves. The charge against the investigator was later dismissed.

In the case involving Millarstine Coleman, a Hale County District Judge had approved a request from the Attorney General to issue a search warrant ordering Coleman to appear on September 20 to provide a handwriting sample, and the Attorney General’s Office also had issued subpoenas in the matter. Without having received notice that anything had been filed or any orders issued in the case, the Attorney General’s Office learned a half-hour before Coleman had been scheduled to appear and give samples that Judge Wiggins had granted a motion to quash the search warrant. At no time prior to Wiggins’ order was the State notified or given an opportunity to be heard.

Judge Wiggins scheduled a hearing regarding the quashed search warrant for October 10. On October 3, the Attorney General filed a motion asking him to recuse himself, supported by a sworn affidavit of the investigator outlining the investigation and the relationships of Judge Wiggins to three suspects.

The investigator’s affidavit was entered into evidence and unrefuted, but Judge Wiggins did not rule on the Attorney General’s motion. The affidavit was also made an exhibit to the Petition for a Writ of Mandamus. Rather, he set a new hearing for November 13 to allow Coleman to amend and refile pleadings that were deficient.

“The end result is that the order quashing the search warrant and the subpoenas remains in place and the investigation of Judge Wiggins’ (relatives) is at a standstill,” the Attorney General stated in his Petition to the Court of Criminal Appeals. Attorney General King further noted that for the alleged violations from 2004 and 2005 elections, “the statutes of limitations are continuing to run, a fact that was pointed out to Judge Wiggins in the October 10, 2007, hearing.”

*Note: Judge Wiggins is the same judge who tried to jail the Probate Judge for seeking to turn over election materials to the District Attorney for voter fraud investigation. In 2002, the Alabama Supreme Court acted to stop Judge Wiggins from returning that evidence to his sister, Circuit Clerk Gay Nell Tinker.

By Dana Beyerle Montgomery Bureau Chief

(MONTGOMERY) The Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday gave Hale County Circuit Judge Marvin Wiggins 21 days to rule on the attorney general’s request for him to step down from a criminal voter fraud investigation that included a state senator as a suspect.

The 5-0 court gave Wiggins until Jan. 8 to rule on Attorney General Troy King’s motion for him to recuse himself from a case he’s investigating.

“This is just another step in what has turned into a long and difficult journey in the search for justice, and electoral honesty and fairness for the people of West Alabama,” King said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “This is a journey that has been frustrated at every step by people who have protected a system that appears in every way to be rotten to the core, where I’ve had investigators arrested, where we’ve been frustrated. If he doesn’t step down we’ll seek further review of it.”

Neither Wiggins nor attorneys in the case could be reached for comment.

King is prosecuting two people and investigating alleged voter fraud in connection with elections in Hale County in 2004 and 2006, including relatives of Wiggins. King said the investigation continues.

King’s motion said Wiggins blocked a search warrant and subpoenas and “has taken other actions that delay and impede the investigation.”

King also wanted handwriting samples from Milliarstine Coleman, a Democratic Party member who was involved in the contested 2004 election.

District Judge William Ryan approved a warrant, but just before Coleman was to give handwriting samples, Wiggins approved a motion by Coleman’s attorney to quash the search warrant. Wiggins and then took over the case.

King’s office alleged that Wiggins showed bias during the early stages of the investigation when Gay Nell Tinker, Wiggins’ sister, was the Hale County circuit clerk and absentee election manager.

King said she issued an arrest warrant for one of his investigators after the investigator allegedly harassed Carrie Reaves, whom he was trying to question. Reaves is first cousin to Tinker and Wiggins. The charge against the investigator was dismissed.

King’s office also alleged that Wiggins tried to jail Hale County Probate Judge Leland Avery for seeking to give election materials to the district attorney.

In 2002, the Alabama Supreme Court acted to stop Wiggins from returning those materials to Tinker.

Tinker formerly was married to state Sen. Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro. In an Oct. 3 affidavit, King’s special investigator, George Barrows, called Singleton a suspect in the voting fraud investigation.

Singleton in an interview said he does and has witnessed absentee ballots but only for people he knows and only in person.

He said it’s possible that he has been a victim of fraud by someone who may have signed his name as a witness to an absentee ballot affidavit.

Barrow said a witness told him that his name was forged on an absentee ballot affidavit that contained Singleton’s name as witness.

Phillip Rawls The Associated Press

MONTGOMERY – Attorney General Troy King on Thursday filed court papers naming state Sen. Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, and others as suspects in a voter fraud investigation in west Alabama.

The court papers also accuse Circuit Judge Marvin Wiggins of trying to impede the Hale County investigation to “protect members of his family,” including Singleton.

King asked the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals to force Wiggins to step aside from one part of the voter-fraud investigation because his sister, former Hale County Circuit Clerk and absentee election manager Gay Nell Tinker; his brother-in-law and former bailiff, Singleton; and his first cousin, Carrie Reaves, “are suspects in the instant investigation and are directly benefiting from the court’s quashing of the search warrant and subpoenas.”

Singleton on Thursday said he would comment later.

Tinker and Wiggins did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment.

In August, an investigation by the attorney general’s office led to the arrests of former Greensboro City Council member Valada Paige Banks and Rosie Lyles of Greensboro on charges of possessing a forged absentee voter affidavit and four counts of promoting illegal absentee voting. The women have pleaded not guilty.

The charges stemmed from a special election held in 2004 to fill a vacant state Senate seat. Singleton, then a member of the Alabama House, won the Senate race. The charges also involved an election in 2005 to fill Singleton’s House position.

On Oct. 7, the Rev. Al Sharpton, Singleton and others participated in a rally in support of the two women.

The attorney general turned to the Court of Criminal Appeals on Thursday after Wiggins quashed a subpoena directing Millarstine Coleman to provide handwriting samples and blocked King’s subpoenas for handwriting samples.

The attorney general’s court filing says the office has been investigating “a conspiracy among as many as 16 individuals, including Coleman and relatives of Judge Wiggins, to commit voter fraud by fraudulently executing and verifying affidavits of absentee voters in several Hale County elections.”

The court papers also include an affidavit from an investigator for the attorney general’s office, George Barrows, who says he took a statement from a witness who said his name was forged on an absentee voting document. Singleton’s name appeared on the document as a witness verifying the signature of the voter as being correct, the court papers said.

Earlier in the investigation, while Tinker was still circuit clerk, she issued an arrest warrant charging the attorney general’s investigator with harassment, but it was dismissed.

© 2007 The Birmingham News
© 2007 al.com All Rights Reserved.

Washington, D.C. – Calling voting “one of the most fundamental rights we have,” members of the Project 21 black leadership network are calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to provide a clear and unmistakable ruling on the constitutionality of states requiring voters to show photo identification at polls before the 2008 general elections.

Proponents of voter ID requirements say they want to lessen the likelihood of voter fraud. Opponents, such as Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, say that asking for a driver’s license or passport at a polling station is the equivalent of a “modern-day poll tax.”

“While I am appalled that the Supreme Court feels compelled to have to take up such a case in the first place, it is important we get this issue behind us before the next election,” said Project 21′s Kevin Martin. “Voting is one of the most fundamental rights we have as Americans, and we have a right to a process that is free of fraud and corruption.”

Six states currently require some sort of photo ID be presented before ballots are issued to voters. Photo ID laws were challenged and upheld by the courts in Indiana, Georgia and Arizona. In Missouri, a photo ID law was struck down last year.

In his majority opinion for a three-judge panel of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge Richard A. Posner pointed out that the Indiana law is meant to counteract voter fraud, “and voter fraud impairs the right of legitimate voters to vote by diluting their votes.” Before the enactment of the Indiana law in 2005, voters were only required to sign a book at the polling place and their signature could be compared with a copy on file.

Project 21 members do not believe strengthening the voter verification process is an impediment to voting.

A September 2007 report by The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis backs this assertion, stating that voter identification laws in general “largely do not have the claimed negative impact on voter turnout based on state-to-state comparisons. African-American respondents in photo identification states are just as likely to report voting compared to African-American respondents from states that only required voters to state their name.”

“Likening the requirement of a credible ID to a poll tax or other Jim Crow-era roadblocks is nothing more than empty rhetoric parroted by partisan operatives,” added Project 21′s Martin. “Photo IDs of the sort necessary to vote in states such as Indiana are a growing everyday requirement in the post-9/11 world for security reasons as well as for business transactions. Where government isn’t already helping and making it easier for those without such identification to obtain it, steps can and should be taken. This should silence all critics, except for those who seek to exploit existing rules to defraud people of the honor and duty of participating in the election process.”

Project 21, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization sponsored by the National Center for Public Policy Research, has been a leading voice of the African-American community since 1992. For more information, contact David Almasi at (202) 543-4110 x11 or visit Project 21′s website at www.project21.org/P21Index.html.