Global Courant 2023-05-18 23:24:26
Amid allegations of election irregularities and fraud, a group tries to get the mayor of a southwestern Louisiana town fired.
Organizers of a recall campaign against Elton Mayor Kesia Skinner Lemoine filed paperwork with the Louisiana Secretary of State’s Office on Tuesday, news outlets reported.
Brandon Kelley, who faced Lemoine in a Dec. 10 mayoral election, told the American Press that the group is seeking to remove Lemoine from office after questions surfaced about the Nov. 8, 2022 mayoral election. An investigation by KPLC-TV found that voters claimed exemptions for homesteads in other parishes, some registered to vote using vacant lots and others with addresses of homes that did not exist. The research found nearly three dozen people with questionable voting data.
“Obviously, if they found there were enough fraudulent votes to change the outcome of the election, the people of Elton’s votes weren’t heard,” Kelley said.
Lemoine defeated Kelley 211-178 in last year’s second round after the November primary, in which she had 142 votes and Kelley had 141. Brandilyn Soileau, another candidate in the mayoral race and president of the recall committee, received 80 votes while Jared ” FireCracker” Trahan had 74.
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A group tries to remove the mayor of a southwestern Louisiana town over allegations of voter fraud.
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To trigger a recall election, the committee must muster 40%, or 276 of the 689 registered voters who live within the city limits, according to the Jeff Davis Parish Registrar of Voters office.
“All we have to do now is word of mouth, but a lot of people are quite upset when they find out about election fraud,” said Kelley. “Transparency should be a big part of city government. We need to make sure everything is transparent and if something is found wrong, it is put right. This isn’t a witch hunt for anyone. It’s just to make sure certain that the people of Elton’s voices were accurately heard.”
Lemoine declined to comment on the recall.
Because the city’s electorate is less than 1,000, the recall must be completed no later than 90 days after a letter of confirmation from the Secretary of State’s office. The state requires all signatures to be handwritten and include the voter’s physical address. The Registrar of Voters Office must authenticate the signatures before forwarding the petition to the governor. If the required number of signatures is met, the governor has 15 days to call a revocation election.
