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December 23, 2005
How Now, Ophelia? - The dead elect the living in Shelby County
[Cross-posted from The Pulse.]
Democracy is great, but somehow I think its definition should be limited to “the living people rule.” (Side note for my freepier friends: I am not implying that our constitutional republic is a democracy, okay?)
Are you following this story? Let’s catch up: You’ll recall that in May, former State Senator John Ford (D-Memphis) resigned amid federal indictments and general scandal. A special election was called to replace the outgoing Senator. In August, the Democratic primary had several contenders, but the top two vote getters were Rep. Henri Brooks and Ford’s sister, Ophelia. Ophelia Ford won by a mere handful of votes – twenty, if memory serves. (Four handfuls, then.) There were questions as to the authenticity of some of the ballots, but Rep. Brooks decided not to contest.
[UPDATE: Here's lobbyist Leslie Hafner's correction to the above.] "I think Rep. Brooks did contest. The appeal was to the State Democratic Party and they were the ones that decided not to throw out the primary results." [Thanks.]
Ms. Ford went on to face Republican nominee Terry Roland, who had handily won against his opponent (John Farmer, whom is running for Congress in the 9th District seat being vacated by John’s and Ophelia’s nephew Harold, Jr.). Most predictions for the September 15th general election’s outcome were for a Democratic landslide, given the 29th District’s voting history; but Roland mounted a serious challenge (with some heavy-hitting campaigners and good publicity) and was beaten by an even narrower margin than was Ms. Brooks. On that election night, one precinct’s ballots were mysteriously missing for a while then showed up at the Election Commission later via police escort. The vote count ended somewhere right at a dozen votes in favor of Ford, (That’s two hands and a half, for those keeping count.)
The Shelby County Election Commission certified Ford’s victory by a single-vote margin, along party lines (typically these certifications are unanimous), and several Commissioners were not present for this vote. I don’t know about you, but something about that strikes me as being odd.
Fast forward to now – no, wait, rewind to when Terry Roland was seeking legal support for a challenge to this extremely close and ambiguous outcome. A brouhaha erupted when the attorney Roland employed for his cause turned out to be on the Shelby County Democratic Party’s Executive Committee. Roland is a Republican, remember? So naturally, instead of citizens uniting to ensure fairness and accuracy regardless of political party, the Shelby County Democrats made their committee member walk the plank (since he refused to abandon his client). Partisanship trumps community, or something along those lines.
Okay, fast forward again. Fortunately, people didn’t let this election go without further inspection. Research has resulted in reports that the names on some ballots (two, as of this writing) were those of people who had died weeks before the election. The Commercial Appeal, Memphis’ mainstream daily, has also identified several other ballots that bear the appearance of fraud. Because of these reports, the District Attorney has invoked the TBI to investigate the matter further.
Terry Roland is naturally interested in the outcome of these investigations, but he shouldn’t count any chickens. This could go in several directions. A new election could be required; or, depending on the timing, the State Senate could refuse to seat Ford, and Shelby County could name an interim senator. The Civic Forum applauds Roland for avoiding the instinct to point fingers at his erstwhile opponent regarding the deceased voters and other, erm, mistakes (after all, we haven’t been told for whom the dead and unregistered voted), because the darkest cloud in this whole story hangs over the County Election Commission. This is the body that should have exercised more control over the accounting, and that should have, well, noticed the irregularities months ago. It is nothing short of discouraging to learn that someone deliberately placed dead people’s names on ballots, but it’s downright depressing to view that in the context of how the whole election was managed. By the way, if you had happened to let your mind wander a bit and had wondered whether the dearly departed in question had been processed at the Ford family’s funeral parlor: you can put those ugly rumors away, since Ophelia’s other brother (Harold, Sr.) made sure to promptly quell them with facts to the contrary.
We should all learn more about our election commission’s purpose, and integrate ourselves into its functions as provided by law (I’m talking here about volunteering to be an independent poll observer, but there are other ways, too). The people can only rule if their elected and appointed officials are placed under the appropriate amount of scrutiny.
Pulsations | By joe lance | 08:23 AM