Vote Suppression Alleged in Close Florida Election
August 08, 2013
SOPCHOPPY, Fla. (AP) — A small Florida Panhandle town best known for its annual Worm Grunting Festival is at the center of an investigation into charges the white city clerk suppressed the black vote in an election where the black mayor lost by a single vote and a black city commissioner was also ousted.
Both losing candidates and three black voters have filed complaints, now being investigated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, that City Clerk Jackie Lawhon made it more difficult for blacks to cast ballots by questioning their residency.
The candidates also allege Lawhon abandoned her duty to remain neutral and actively campaigned for the three whites on the ballot. "If the allegations that we have are 100 percent accurate, then this election was literally stolen from us and I really feel like there should be another election," said Anginita Rosier, who lost her seat on the commission by 26 votes.
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Whites "were basically told how to vote and who to vote for," Rosier said. All three black voters who filed complaints said they were questioned about their addresses and were told they couldn't vote because they didn't live within city limits. They insisted they did.
Willie Mae Stevens said she was eventually allowed to vote, Wilton Booth said he was given a provisional ballot that was never counted, and Thomas Rosier, who is Anginita Rosier's great-uncle, said he was turned away.
"I told them to their face, 'Y'all act like you don't want these black folks to vote, but I've got a right to vote just like everybody else.' I fussed on," Stevens said in an interview. "They eventually let me vote. It took me 20, it might have been 30 minutes."
http://www.mail.com/news/politics/2263470-vote-suppression-alleged-close-fla-election.html