Memphis Paper Finds Dead Voters, Prompts Fraud Probe

Editor & Publisher ^ | 12/15/05 | Joe Strupp

[LdSentinal]

NEW YORK Results of a state senate election in western Tennessee have been thrown into doubt, and an investigation into voter fraud launched, after the Memphis Commercial Appeal uncovered proof that votes had been cast for dead people.

The Sept. 15 special election to fill a vacant seat in the 29th state Senate District, which includes part of Memphis, had already drawn intense interest when the margin of victory was just 13 votes out of 8,750 cast. Democrat Ophelia Ford had edged Republican Terry Roland in the race to fill the seat previously held by Ford's brother, John, who was forced to resign in May after being indicted on bribery charges.

After the election, Roland's campaign began to review voter rolls looking for questionable votes in the tight race. The campaign also filed a plea with the state Senate to bar Ford from being seated when the Senate convenes next year.

John Harvey, a Roland campaign advisor, said he came up with about 60 names he believed might have not been authorized to vote for several reasons and gave the names to Commercial Appeal reporter Marc Perrusquia last week.

The reporter, a 16-year veteran of the paper, began reviewing the names and addresses of those who had voted in one of the district's 60 precincts, and discovered one person's address was a vacant lot. He then cross-matched names with the paper's recent obituaries and found the person, Joe Light, had died about six weeks before the election.

"I discovered that someone had signed his name and he had voted on Election Day," Perrusquia said. His first story on that lone voter ran last Sunday. "I wondered if there were more, but it was like finding a needle in a haystack."

On Monday and Tuesday, Perrusquia did more cross-checking between voting results and obituaries and came across another dead voter, one Archie L. Kirkwood, who had died Aug. 30. A story ran Wednesday revealing that fraud.

Just hours after Perrusquia's second story appeared, officials at the Shelby County Election Commission released results of their own review, revealing that at least three more votes in the same precinct had been wrongly cast. But it was not clear if those votes were in the names of dead people or were illegal for other reasons. Election Commission Chair Greg Duckett told the paper that the Shelby County District Attorney had launched an investigation into the matter.

"They believe that the same person may have forged them all, a poll worker maybe," Perrusquia said. "They have also conceded that three felons not allowed to vote had voted and a person from outside the district had voted, so the election is already tainted."

But the Commercial Appeal hasn't stopped there. Perrusquia said he has begun reviewing voter rolls and obituaries involving several of the other 59 precincts in the same Senate district, and has requested a copy of the state's death registry to help with the comparisons. "There are a good many precincts left," he said.

Commercial Appeal Editor Chris Peck could not be reached for comment.

Harvey, the Roland campaign advisor, praised the Commercial Appeal for sparking the investigations. "I think they are going to have to throw the [election results] out," Roland said, adding that the newspaper "did a great job and it looks like they are still digging."

[GailA]

We Tenneseans have known this for a long, long time especially those of us who live in or near Memphis. We scream it loudly here on FR. To bad FNC can't figure out what we've known by looking at his voting record. They still think he's a blue dog RAT, because he is soft spoken and not given to fits like man of his fellow RATS.

[GailA]

She's his aunt. Suspiciously elected to the seat of his uncle, who is under indictment for selling his votes.