Calhoun Democrats call for registrar to step down

Carolyn Henderson, member of the Calhoun County Board of Registrars, said, however, that she won’t step down for doing her job. The executive committee of the Calhoun County Democratic Party has called  for Calhoun county board of registrars member Carolyn Henderson to   resign based on statements she made regarding the number of absentee ballot applications her office had received ahead of the July 15 runoff election between incumbent Calhoun County Commissioner Fred Wilson and challenger James Montgomery. The Board of Registrars received more than 400 absentee ballot applications from Calhoun County Commission District 1, which includes most of Anniston and areas west of the city, as well as Hobson City and a portion of Oxford.  Wilson won the July 15 election and the Democratic nominee for the District 1 chair on the commission by 159 votes. There is no Republican challenger for the November general election.  Montgomery has contested the results of the election, citing uncounted absentee ballots as well as interference from Henderson in the race. Although Montgomery won the majority of absentee votes cast in the election — 171 to Wilson’s 31 — he said more than 200 residents who applied to vote absentee never voted after Henderson said she was alarmed by the high number of absentee applications her office had received. The total number of applicants from District 1 was higher than the total number of absentee ballots cast from the whole county in the June primary election.  Montgomery, and the Calhoun County Democratic Party, said it was not Henderson’s place to make a judgment call on the number of absentee ballots, and said her statements caused many voters hesitation in returning their ballots.  Henderson said Tuesday that raising concerns about potential voter fraud is what she is required to do under the law. Under Alabama law, voters are allowed to vote absentee only if they will be out of town, physically unable to make it to the polls on election day, or are working a 10-hour shift that coincides with open poll hours.  Henderson said she was worried that many residents had been misled, and would lose their right to vote at the polls after requesting an absentee ballot.  Calhoun County District Attorney Brian McVeigh said his office had received a request to look into the high number of ballots. McVeigh said investigators asked a small sampling of residents who sent an absentee ballot application to the county about their reasons for doing so. He said all results of the investigation had been sent to the Attorney General’s Office, and that there was no pending investigation ongoing at the local or state level.