Malia Riggs
Elmore Autauga News
Top photo: Former Autauga District 5 Commissioner Larry Stoudemire.
Former Autauga County District 5 Commissioner Larry Stoudemire released a press release early last week on Nov. 11, with allegations of uncovering voter fraud in the District 5 County Commission race.
The press release put out by Stoudemire and his team states that their investigation indicates that Henry Lanier, an independent candidate that ran in the District 5 election, has submitted false documents to the Autauga County Probate office.
The press release further claims that the alleged names included on a petition were not registered voters in the district, names of deceased individuals and certain names of individuals on the petition were on the document without alleged consent.
“Ensuring fair and transparent elections is a fundamental responsibility. The fraudulent actions discovered in this matter violate our community’s trust and harm the democratic process. We will pursue every avenue to uphold electoral integrity and protect the rights of our citizens. These actions represent a grave breach of public trust and the ethical principles that underpin our electoral system,” Stoudemire said.
Stoudemire stated that he has friends and preachers on the petition that have told him personally that they did not sign the petition. Stoudemire has confirmed that he will be taking legal action and that he has been in touch with District Attorney CJ Robinson, as well as the Attorney General’s office in Montgomery.
Due to the potential for pending litigation, the responses from the Autauga County Probate Office were given through Autauga County Attorney Kyle Shirley. Shirley confirmed with the Probate Office that in order to run as an independent in a County Commission Election in Autauga County, the candidate must submit a petition with at least 107 legal voters’ names from that respective District.
Shirley confirmed that Lanier turned in a petition last March with approximately 236 names, where around 190 of those names were vetted as legal voters by the Board of Registrars. Shirley explained that if they are disqualified from voting or if their information does not match their voter registration, that name is taken off the list and does not count towards the total.
“The Board of Registrars certified that the individuals on the list were registered voters in District 5. That does not include anybody who had a disqualifying felony. That does not count people that lived outside of District 5. If the information that they gave, like their name and their date of birth on the petition, did not match the voter registration, they did not count. If they were not a registered voter, they did not count,” Shirley said.
The press release also stated allegations of developmentally challenged, disabled or even deceased individuals’ names were on the petition. Shirley stated that legally, there’s no mechanism under the law for the Board of Registrars to go out and verify who the names are, if their voter information matches and is correct, legally that name can be on the petition.
However, if someone is declared incompetent, and it goes through a court process, then voting rights can be stripped of that person, Shirley confirmed. Unless it is court mandated, a developmentally disabled adult can still retain their right to vote even if they are under a guardianship, Shirley confirmed.
Shirley confirmed with Autauga County Probate Judge Kim Kervin that if voting rights are restricted or removed from an individual, such as a developmentally disabled person, then the Board of Registrars is notified from the court. They are then removed from the voter roll, Shirley stated. However, if a developmentally disabled individual is a registered voter and is still on the voter roll, Shirley confirmed that they would show up fine on the petition in question.
Shirley also verified the numbers and potential error on election night through the new Autauga County Probate Office App. On election night, November 5, at 8:28 p.m. Stoudemire was leading the race over Lanier and Terry Tanner, the newly appointed District 5 commissioner.
At 8:45 that same night, the votes in the app and online were drastically different than what they were 15 minutes prior, putting Tanner ahead of Stoudemire in the race.
Shirley stated that the results from the app and online at that time were unofficial and the change in numbers was caused by a human error. Shirley stated that they hate that it caused confusion, but Judge Kervin was trying to get unofficial results out to the public as fast as possible.
The way the process works is there’s the official vote counting process that is coming from the voting machine, where the data is coming from a data stick in the machine, that the probate office will officially tabulate. Shirley confirmed that in an effort to provide information to voters as fast as possible, a completely separate manual system was used. Due to human error, it was manually uploaded incorrectly on election night, Shirley confirmed.
“There was a completely separate manual system where they were getting the information, raw and in real time, from the voting houses, to push that information out to the citizens so that they weren’t waiting an hour for the voting results from Jones to travel from the Jones voting house. They were doing that as a service to the public, and so in manually taking that down, somebody wrote it down in the wrong spot and put it into the app. The app said all over it, unofficial results. The unofficial results from the completely separate unofficial system showed it incorrectly,” Shirley said.
Shirley went on to state that the Board of Registrars did everything within their power to protect the rights of the citizens of Autauga County. Shirley confirmed that the verification process for the petition to put Lanier on the ballot was done fairly and legally.
The race for the District 5 seat in Autauga County consisted of former District 5 County Commissioner Stoudemire, Lanier and Tanner.
Tanner narrowly won the Autauga County Commission race where the official results on the Alabama Secretary of State website indicate that Tanner won with 48.40% of the vote and 2,264 votes, Stoudemire received 43.01% of the vote with 2,012 total votes and Henry Lanier receiving 8.36% of the vote or 391 total votes.
The newly appointed and returning Commissioners took their Oath of Office in the Autauga County Chambers last Thursday evening without incident.
