Six adults claiming to live at candidate Kegdra Gibbs-Gray’s home at 2514 22nd Ave. N. cast absentee ballots for the Aug. 20 special election for Ward 4 Columbus councilman.
All six – five of whose last names are Gibbs – registered to vote at that address between July 14 and Aug. 6, according to records obtained from the city registrar’s office. Before that, their registered addresses were all outside Ward 4.
This has led District 5 Lowndes County Supervisor Leroy Brooks to file a complaint with the Mississippi Secretary of State’s office asking for an investigation into possible voter fraud in the election. While Brooks is a Ward 5 resident, his supervisor district includes parts of Ward 4.
“I’ve known the (Gibbs) family for years,” Brooks said. “They go to my church. It’s a large family and I don’t know all of these six people, but I’m pretty sure they are family members.”
A Secretary of State’s representative confirmed the office received the complaint and forwarded it to the Attorney General’s office. A representative for the AG said office policy prohibited commenting on investigations.
Gibbs-Gray placed first in a six-candidate field Aug. 20 to qualify for a runoff set for Sept. 10. She garnered 195 votes, 74 of which came from absentee ballots. The five other candidates combined to receive only 15 absentee votes.
Pierre Beard finished second to also qualify for the runoff. Of the 114 total votes he received, only three came from absentee ballots.
By law, a voter can cast an absentee ballot by mail or in-person before an election if they are 65 or older, claim they won’t be available to vote on election day or are disabled. While most absentee ballots require a notary public’s signature, ballots cast by voters claiming illiteracy or disability only require a witness signature from someone 18 or older.
Gibbs-Gray, who cast her ballot at an election day polling place, lists 2514 22nd Ave. N. as her address on her qualifying paperwork. Of the six who voted absentee from that same address, four voted by mail and two in person at City Hall. Two voters claimed disability, two noted they would be out of town on election day and two others said work prevented them from voting on election day.
Brooks believes one of the voters who claimed disability is Gibbs-Gray’s son who lives in Tennessee. That voter changed his registration July 15 to the candidate’s home after previously being registered at an address outside the city limits.
Four of the absentee voters were previously registered at a Ward 2 address. A woman at that Ward 2 address on Friday told The Dispatch those four were her grandchildren who hadn’t lived there in “a couple of years.”
The sixth voter who cast an absentee ballot from Gibbs-Gray’s home was previously registered in Ward 5. A man claiming he had lived at that former address 40 years said he didn’t know the voter but “still gets some mail with her name on it every now and then.”
In a text to The Dispatch, Gibbs-Gray denied any wrongdoing.
“I’m not commenting on bs. These types of dirty lowdown political tactics make me more determined to represent Ward 4. Please come out on September 10th and vote,” it reads.
Brooks: More evidence to come
Brooks said he first became aware of the possible abuse of absentee voting in early August when he was tipped off by a city voting commissioner that 73 absentee ballots had been requested, almost all of them associated with one candidate.
In an Aug. 9 press conference where he stated his intentions to ask for an investigation, Brooks did not name the candidate.
Now, he said, he believes Gibbs-Gray’s campaign has solicited fraudulent absentee ballots.
Brooks said there is more evidence to come.
“This weekend I’m going to follow up on some more complaints I’ve heard,” he said. “I’m putting together another complaint and I have a paper trail to follow. This one is more substantive with about 25 people falsifying their (voter) registration on the form they signed to get their absentee ballots.”
Asked if he believed his opponent’s campaign has violated election laws, Beard answered, “Most definitely.”
Beard said he will wait until after the runoff to decide a course of action.
“At this point, I’m going to wait,” he said Saturday. “Mr. Brooks has the investigation underway, so there’s not really anything else that needs to be done. I’ll wait and see if any of those same things happen again in the runoff. Then, I’ll know how I want to handle it.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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