Reply #16: TX: Allegations of early voting fraud tear up Forney [View All]

[Wilms]

Premature Election

Allegations of early voting fraud tear up Forney

By MATT PULLE

Published: Thursday, October 27, 2005

Last May, the city of Forney, a tiny but growing bedroom community 20 miles east of Dallas, played host to a election for mayor that featured switched ballots, confounding results and the undue influence of a crony of the incumbent. If not that, then challenger and self-made millionaire Rick Wilson has manipulated the testimony of nearly 200 voters and an election judge, masterfully concocting a scandal that's polarizing an otherwise friendly Texas town. This is a not a case where the truth is likely to lie somewhere in between.

On May 7, the day of the election for mayor and city council, Wilson, the owner of a thriving fabrication company in Forney, expected to eke out a close victory. Informal surveys pointed to a tight contest. The electorate seemed divided between Darrell Grooms, the folksy, pro-development incumbent, and the reluctant challenger who supporters enlisted to check what they saw as the unbridled growth of their city. But that night, voters handed Grooms an easy re-election, startling Wilson and his supporters.

On the evening of the election, Gene Albright, an election official who helped tabulate the early and general election votes, ran into the chastened challenger outside Forney's school administration building. He was rather cryptic, but he said there was some sort of problem with the returns, although he was not ready to discuss them yet. He wanted to head home and review the election data first.

Earlier that morning, Albright began his first day as an election judge after being prodded by an elderly, civic-minded woman named Betty Hatley. At 8 a.m., the city secretary and police chief delivered the box of early votes. Although he didn't think much of it at the time, Albright would later remember that there was no seal on the ballot box.

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http://www.dallasobserver.com/Issues/2005-10-27/news/news.html

Thanks to Tanyev
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5296936