The mayor of a small Georgia city and two former election workers have been jailed on felony charges stemming from efforts to stop a local election last fall.

The mayor of a small city in Georgia and two former election officials have been jailed on felony charges stemming from efforts last November to halt a local election after one of the mayor’s allies was disqualified from a city council race.

Camilla Mayor Kelvin Owens was being held at the Mitchell County jail Friday, two days after a grand jury indicted him on a felony charge of election interference and a misdemeanor count of conspiring to commit election fraud.

Also jailed were the city’s former elections superintendent, Rhunette Williford; and her former deputy superintendent, Cheryl Ford, who is currently Camilla’s city clerk. They were charged with the same crimes as the mayor, plus misdemeanor counts of failing to perform their duties as public officers.

  • PapaStevesy@lemmy.world
    7·
    3 days ago

    Most local governments in America are “officially” non-partisan.

    Edit: I’m not wrong 🤷‍♂️

    • RestrictedAccount@lemmy.world
      2·
      2 days ago

      Nope. Not even close.

      Edit: They may be nonpartisan somewhere but nowhere near a significant amount of them are.

      -source: raised in small town America, lived in 4 states, and spent decades traveling the country

    • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
      8·
      3 days ago

      What city do you live in? Every person that I’ve ever seen run for office was always in a party.

      • PapaStevesy@lemmy.world
        6·
        3 days ago

        I’m sure they were affiliated and financially supported by a party, and some municipalities do run partisan elections, but “mayoral elections are officially nonpartisan in most of the nation’s largest cities”, insofar as party affiliation is not listed on the ballot. I’m sure mayoral candidate party affiliations are well-known/easily determined in big cities, but in small towns like the one I grew up in, the info isn’t necessarily there and there’s not necessarily anyone even looking for it.

        • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
          3·
          3 days ago

          Party affiliation of the mayors of the 100 largest cities:
          Democratic 65
          Republican 25

          …From that article.

                • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
                  2·
                  3 days ago

                  Ok guy, sure thing buddy. You win shit hole dive towns aren’t political somehow in your world. that’s fine.

                  • PapaStevesy@lemmy.world
                    8·
                    3 days ago

                    Bro, this isn’t an opinion and that’s a massive misrepresentation of my comments. Obviously city elections are “political”, obviously candidates are affiliated with parties based on their personal beliefs and intentions, but that doesn’t change the fact that objectively, most city election ballots don’t include party affiliation information. Someone was wondering why they couldn’t find that information and I simply offered a possible explanation. Sorry reality seems to have hurt your feelings, idk what else to tell you 🤷‍♂️

                  • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
                    4·
                    3 days ago

                    Mayoral elections, and many city elections, are generally non partisan.

                    So while the candidate may be a Republican or a Democrat, they aren’t running AS a Republican or Democrat, and the party affiliation is not mentioned on the ballot.

                    Here’s the ballot for mayor of Portland, Oregon in 2024, ranked choice, vote for up to 6. Keith Wilson won.