AL - Uniontown voting raises questions
Uniontown voting raises questions
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/p...W=445&border=0 The total votes cast in Uniontown on Tuesday — 1,431 — represented a turnout of 55 percent of the number of registered voters and a whopping 80.6 percent of the town’s population.
File photo
By Dana Beyerle
Montgomery Bureau Chief
Published: Thursday, August 30, 2012
MONTGOMERY | The U.S. Justice Department’s voting rights section sent poll watchers to monitor elections in three small Alabama towns Tuesday. Maybe they should have been in tiny Uniontown, where the municipal election produced some extraordinary numbers.
Uniontown has a population of 1,775, according to the 2010 census but, according to the Perry County board of registrars, has 2,587 registered voters.
The total votes cast there Tuesday — 1,431 — represented a turnout of 55 percent of the number of registered voters and a whopping 80.6 percent of the town’s population. When compared with the 1,140 people in the town who are 18 and older, according to the census, the turnout was 125 percent.
Deputy Secretary of State Emily Thompson said Wednesday that it’s possible to have more registered voters than a town’s listed population due to a number of factors, including census error and because voter registrars have strict guidelines in removing voters, even inactive ones.
Perry County Board of Registrars chairwoman Lucy Kynard said that 279 of the town’s registered voters were “removable” due to being dead or having been convicted of felonies.
Also, according to election officials, 650 absentee ballots were cast in the Uniontown election, or 45 percent of the total. An absentee ballot is supposed to be given to voters who say they will be out of the city or county on Election Day. The state average for absentee voting is 3 to 5 percent, state records show.
When asked Wednesday about the number of registered voters compared with the town’s population, Alfreda Washington, the Uniontown city clerk and election manager, replied, “I haven’t given it a thought.”
The board of registrars, not Washington, is responsible for registering voters.
Thompson said voting complaints are referred to the local district attorney and that if a written complaint is received, a copy would go to the Attorney General’s Office.
Thompson said Secretary of State Beth Chapman has visited Perry County in the past.
“She is absolutely committed to ensuring that only qualified voters are registered in any county but also that registrars follow the correct procedures for removal,” Thompson said. “There are strict federal and state mandates on how someone can be removed from a voter list and voter registrars in every county must be careful to adhere to those guidelines.”
The Justice Department sent poll watchers to Lanett, Phenix City and Reform on Tuesday. A department spokesman, Mitchell Rivard, would not say why the three towns were chosen, but he distributed a statement that said poll watchers can monitor elections in counties covered by the Voting Rights Act for past voter discrimination.
Patsy Cloninger, administrative secretary for Lanett City Clerk Deborah Daniel, said the Justice Department wanted to know how the town arrived at its voting list.
Phenix City in Russell County and Reform in Pickens County got their first black mayors and the mayor of Lanett, who is black, was elected unopposed.
PhoenixCity voters elected former University of Alabama football player Eddie Lowe and voters in Reform elected the town’s first black mayor, Bennie Harton, a town councilman.
Uniontown voting raises questions | TuscaloosaNews.com