THE FIX IS IN
8-22-08
IT IS OUR OPINION that the fix is in for Tuesday's election. Consider what Mayor Perkins and his City Clerk, Lois Williams, have done to ensure a Perkins victory at any cost:
1. Clerk Williams announced that Officers Miller and Tubbs would "guard" the voting machines in the basement of city hall on Monday night. Our sources in the Police Department tell us that for the last month, Perkins has been "wining and dining" Miller and Tubbs. Miller spends most of his time in the office of Perkins' appointee, Chief William T. Riley. These two "guardians of the voting machines" are Perkins flunkies and should not be guarding the voting machines. We want to know WHO WILL BE WATCHING THEM THROUGHOUT THE NIGHT?>br>
2. The most ridiculous act among many outrageous acts by Clerk Williams is to select 16 CITY EMPLOYEES to guard the voting machines at the polling places from 4:30-6:30 PM. The delivery of voting machines will begin at 4 a.m. Tuesday morning. Polling officials will not arrive until 6:30 a.m. If ever there was a case of the "fox guarding the hen house" it is Williams city employees, who all work for Perkins, BEING ALONE WITH THE VOTING MACHINES FOR TWO HOURS BEFORE POLLING OFFICIALS ARRIVE. Despite ALABAMA LAW WHICH FORBIDS CITY EMPLOYEES from being Polling Officials, Williams is going to let them be machine watchers. What a farce and travesty of justice!!
3. Federal poll watchers will NOT be coming to Selma to observe the election. The City Council had voted unanimously to ask them to come; however, the Justice Department, after talking with a few select individuals in Selma, probably including Perkins, decide not to show their faces in Selma during this most important election in Selma'a recent history.
4. Is it mere coincidence that the City's IT Director and Perkins appointee, Bruce Williams, decided to change the swipe cards which permit entrance to City Hall FIVE DAYS before the election? Now, other than one person, ALL PEOPLE WITH ACCESS to a locked City Hall are Perkins and his appointees. Could this just be coincidence or is it just another step in a plan to steal Tuesday's election?
5. And finally, what is Jean Martin thinking when she appointed the Freedom Foundation's Gwen Brown to be the Chief Clerk at the Byrd School polling place? A relative newcomer to Selma who has never worked the local polls, Brown has given every evidence on her radio program that she and the Freedom Foundation members are big time Perkins supporters. And she does live with the Duke at 609 Tremont Street- and we believe that Mark Duke is a major supporter of Perkins. What was Mrs. Martin thinking by putting another Perkins supporter as a poll worker when every poll worker in Wards 5-6-7-8 already are supporting Perkins?
It is a shame that honest people have spent tens of thousands of dollars and walked countless miles campaigning and then have to wonder if the Mayor and his City Clerk will permit an honest election in this city.
It is absolutely necessary that this election be challenged and that the BALLOTS THEN BE COUNTED BY HAND.
