NEW YORK Results of a state senate election in western Tennessee have been thrown into doubt, and an investigation into voter fraud launched, after the Commercial Appeal of Memphis uncovered proof that votes had been cast for dead people.
The Sept. 15 special election to fill a vacant seat in the 29th state Senate District, which includes part of Memphis, had already drawn intense interest when the margin of victory was just 13 votes out of 8,750 cast. Democrat Ophelia Ford had edged Republican Terry Roland in the race to fill the seat previously held by Ford's brother, John, who was forced to resign in May after being indicted on bribery charges.
After the election, Roland's campaign began to review voter rolls looking for questionable votes in the tight race. The campaign also filed a plea with the state Senate to bar Ford from being seated when the Senate convenes next year.
John Harvey, a Roland campaign advisor, said he came up with about 60 names he believed might have not been authorized to vote for several reasons and gave the names to Commercial Appeal reporter Marc Perrusquia last week.
The reporter, a 16-year veteran of the paper, began reviewing the names and addresses of those who had voted in one of the district's 60 precincts, and discovered one person's address was a vacant lot. He then cross-matched names with the paper's recent obituaries and found the person, Joe Light, had died about six weeks before the election.
