Election official: 5 special election ballots may be forged
Shelby County Election Commission Chairman Greg Duckett said similar handwriting appeared on two ballot applications with dead voters’ names as well as three other applications.
The votes were cast in the Sept. 15 state Senate race to replace former Sen. John Ford. Only nine ballots put Ford’s sister, Democrat Ophelia Ford, ahead of Republican contender, Terry Roland.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation was called in to investigate the election after The Commercial Appeal reported that Joe L. Light and Archie L. Kirkwood ? who both died in August ? were recorded as voting on election day.
Duckett said that all the suspicious votes came from the same polling place and had to have been forged by someone with knowledge that the two registered voters were dead.
“They will be prosecuted to the furthest extent of the law,” Duckett said. “It would indicate to me that this was someone who knew about the election process.”
Concerns over the forgeries come amid contentions from Roland that at least 68 ballots were cast by people not properly registered to vote in the district.
A Senate committee reviewing Roland’s allegations meets Dec. 21 in Nashville.
John Ford and Ophelia Ford’s brother, former congressman Harold Ford Sr., called The Commercial Appeal on Wednesday to make it clear that his funeral home, N.J. Ford & Sons Funeral Home, didn’t bury Light or Kirkwood.
He said he’s received numerous calls, including one from his son, Rep. Harold Ford Jr., who’s running for the U.S. Senate.
“My son Harold called today, (and asked), ‘Did we bury those people at the funeral home?'” Ford said. “We did not bury those people at all, and wouldn’t have had any way of knowing any information on those folks.”