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http://www.wkrn.com/Global/story.asp?S=4253952

Ford Sr. investigates, but says Democrats didn't rig dead voters

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - Former U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Sr. said he has started his own investigation into allegations that two dead voters cast ballots in a state Senate election his sister won by a narrow margin.

Ophelia Ford was elected by a 13-vote margin over Republican challenger Terry Roland in a special election to fill the seat vacated by another brother, John Ford, who was indicted in a federal corruption sting.

The state Election Commission and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation will look into the election following reports by The Commercial Appeal newspaper that the names of two dead voters were used to cast ballots in a heavily Democratic North Memphis precinct.

Ford did not make any accusations, but he suggested his own Democratic Party was not guilty of election fraud.

"It's gotten to (where people are saying), 'Hey, we're out here voting dead people.' It is clear that is not the case. We know that for a fact," Ford said. "We're going to get all the facts. The other side's got all the information, and I think that they are well aware of what took place and what went on."

Local Republicans called Ford's statements "absurd." "Tell Harold Ford Sr. that the folks at the Flat Earth Society say hello," said Bill Giannini, chairman of the Shelby County Republican Party. "All we said from day one is we wanted this (tight election) to be looked at. And for Harold Ford Sr. to get involved in it at this point is certainly puzzling."

The official margin of victory for the race was certified at 13 votes, but Shelby County Election Commission Chairman Greg Duckett said he believes as many as five ballots may have been forged in Precinct 27-1. Those ballots include the two cast in the names of dead voters as well as three others, he said.

Roland has asked the state Senate for the election results to be overturned.

Ford Sr. also called the newspaper to dispel rumors that his family's funeral home had handled arrangements for the deceased, although a funeral home operator who did also works as an embalmer for the Fords.

The former congressman, who was succeeded in the U.S. House by his son Harold Ford Jr., said he has called some of the voters in the precinct where Republicans spent campaign funds.

"I see the trend where this is going to be headed," he said. "And it's not coming to us."

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)