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Monday, January 23, 2006

Collateral Damage, Or Are They ?




Ms. Verline Mayo poll supervisor at precint 27-1, and Ms. Vatricia Mckinney poll worker at same location. These two ladies are at the center of the voter fraud scandal, in district 29 state senate race. Ms. Mayo is the supervisor at the precint location, where some of the infractions took place. Ms. Mckinney is saying that she infomed Ms. Mayo ahead of time. That she would be unable to work that day. Ms. Mayo is saying she was unaware of the fact, that Ms. Mckinney wasn't supposed to be there. Until the poll opened that day, and Ms. Mckinney's sister(Ms. Mary McClatcher) showed up to work. In both cases they both commited violations. One doesn't excuse the other. Unfortunately when the dust clears everyone ought to be in trouble.

As I stated earlier, I think Ms. Mckinney was doing business as usual. Circumstances put the spotlight on unwritten policy. It's just understood that everybody does it, all the time. She just picked the wrong time. Not because she didn't come to work that day. Or she sent her sister in her place. She violated when she cashed the check. She was double dipping at that. She was on a taxpayer funded, public housing resident official leadership retreat. At the time she was absent from poll. All that crying doesn't hide the fact, that you were milking the system. I bet she's probably somebody's cousin.

Ms. Verline Mayo made comments today, after repeatedly refusing to have anything to say.There wasn't really much she could say though. That would help or salvage her position. Anything she says is going to be wrong. Once you've obviously screwed up. You're damned if you do, damned if you don't. All you can do is ride the storm out. See what's going to happen in the end. Something she said, it made me wonder though. If she could be part, of a bigger picture. It's possible someone got to her. I mean what can they really do to her ? To suggest we need another election, because you didn't do your job. That's awfully big of her. I liked it better when she remained quiet.

Regardless of their involvement, it wasn't their idea. I'm not even sure they know what has really happened. This raises questions, pertaining to all the elections in the past. It cast doubt on those yet to take place. Nobody has misplaced or miscounted thousands of votes. Those people now have challenges too. Foolish though they may be, we have to entertain them also. Even people that lost by landslides, have legitimate cases now. What's in question here, is the integrity of the process. Based on the present political enviroment, if you keep digging. There's no telling who, or what it might uncover.

5 comments:

  1. Poll worker now faults machines in dead vote
    By Marc Perrusquia
    Contact
    January 24, 2006

    In a new twist to Shelby County's dead voter scandal, the officer in charge of a North Memphis voting precinct now says she encountered late-night voting machine troubles.

    Verline Mayo gave the account Monday while defending her poll workers at North Memphis' Precinct 27-1, where someone used the names of two dead voters to cast ballots in the disputed Sept. 15 state Senate election.




    A majority of senators, alleging fraud and other irregularities, want to void the District 29 election narrowly won by Ophelia Ford.

    In a series of interviews since last month, Mayo has said she believes any fraud was committed by people posing as voters -- not by poll workers as Election Commission Chairman Greg Duckett says he suspects.

    On Monday, Mayo added to her account, saying for the first time that she had difficulties getting her voting machines to tally, a problem that she says caused Precinct 27-1 to report returns as much as an hour late.

    During that time, poll workers may have innocently filled in blanks on paper ballot applications, she said.

    "There's no record that happened,'' said James Johnson, Shelby County elections administrator. Johnson said Precinct 27-1 didn't report late.

    He said he doesn't know why Mayo is now saying that, but said her accounts are beginning to sound "like a cover story.''

    Records show someone signed the names of Joe L. Light, 70, and Archie L. Kirkwood, 72 -- both of whom died weeks before the Sept. 15 election -- to vote at Precinct 27-1.

    An investigation by The Commercial Appeal also found that poll worker Vatricia A. McKinney, 52, whose initials appear on ballot applications for both dead voters, actually was in New York that day. Though McKinney was paid $95, her sister, Mary L. McClatcher, 51, secretly worked in her place.

    In television interviews Monday, a tearful McKinney admitted she didn't work the polls that day but said she'd told Mayo ahead of time she wouldn't be there. Meantime, McClatcher told Fox News 13 she signed her sister's name and initials on election documents at Mayo's direction.

    Mayo confirmed that she told McClatcher to sign in as McKinney, who was to give her pay to her sister. Doing otherwise would have required McClatcher to wait several weeks to get paid, Mayo said.

    Mayo, 68, a former public housing leader who for years has been Precinct 27-1's officer in charge, then gave this explanation for the dead voter ballots:

    Poll workers are supposed to initial ballot applications just before voters enter the booth, but workers may have waited until the end of the day. When poll workers finally initialed the applications, they may not have initialed the correct ones.

    Mayo offered that explanation because several poll workers -- including McClatcher -- knew deceased voter Kirkwood and would not have been fooled by someone posing as her.

    Mayo said poll workers had extra time to fill in blanks because of problems getting the two voting machines to tabulate.

    Mayo said she called Election Commission inspector Eddie Hayes to come help fix the problem -- an allegation Hayes denies.

    "She's changing her story every three days, it seems to me,'' said Hayes, who earns a living as a funeral director for the Ford Funeral Home, owned by relatives of Ophelia Ford.

    Hayes said he's worked as an Election Day inspector for about 20 years, long before he went to work for the Ford Funeral Home.

    The Election Commission's Johnson said there's no records of any vote tally delay at Precinct 27-1, and poll workers aren't supposed to initial ballot applications after the fact. "That's not the way they're trained.''

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