Candidate calls for press conference concerning 3 absentee ballots
COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – We are 8 days away from municipal primary elections, and already absentee ballots are being called into question in Columbus.
This morning, Democratic mayoral candidate, Leroy Brooks called a press conference about an issue with three absentee ballots.
Brooks obtained a letter from a former Columbus resident, who had seen her name and her parents’ names on a list of absentee ballots that had been posted on Facebook.
The woman, who now lives out of state, said neither she nor her parents had requested or filled out the ballots.
Brooks says another candidate alerted him to the complaint.
He said some people are working for candidates to pick up absentee ballots across the city and mail them to people.
He also maintains that in some cases, they are taking the ballots to the person and witnessing them as well.
Brooks said that it can be hard to detect a trend in these cases until the votes are being examined.
“As these ballots are coming in, they’re being put in the respective boxes, so you have no way of seeing who attested. now, if a person attests to four or five ballots, that means they’re out there harvesting ballots, which is against the law. And, so, it needs to stop, and, again, we think that we have sufficient information to warrant an investigation, There are a couple of other candidates, city council candidates, who are trying to get information to help facilitate this, but we think that that this letter and this conversation is enough to warrant an investigation, so we’re going to ask them to expedite coming into Columbus,” said Brooks.
Brooks is forwarding the information he has gathered to the Attorney General and the Secretary of State.
