The son of a noted civil rights leader in Alabama has been charged with voter fraud and ballot harvesting in incidents related to two elections.
Perry County Commission Chairman Albert Turner, Jr. has been charged with voting more than once and harvesting hundreds of ballots in two separate elections in May and November of 2022.
Turner is accused of “stuffing” ballots into a voting machine in the May Democratic primary election. “He was there most of the day stuffing filled out ballots in favor of the candidates he was supporting,’’ District Attorney Michael Jackson told reporters. “Witnesses came forward, and we felt we had enough to present to a Perry County grand jury.”
Jackson and Merrill did not speak to the specific races in which Turner is accused of trying to influence. They said it’s too soon to know if those races could be impacted by the results of the ongoing investigation and Merrill said other people could be charged.
Jackson said the investigation is being turned over to the Alabama Attorney General’s Office to avoid any possible conflict of interest.
Jackson, who has been district attorney since 2004, lost the district attorney’s race in May to Robert H. Turner Jr., who is Albert Turner’s first cousin.
“As you know the Black Belt was the heart of the Voting Rights Act,’’ Jackson said.
Indeed, DA Jackson, as well as Commissioner Turner, are black, and the irony of Jackson losing his race for district attorney because another black politician committed voter fraud is poignant, indeed.
“I am not concerned about any charge he has announced and I will not waste any energy on political theatre. It is mighty funny that Little Mike waited until he was leaving office to make his charge because he knows he can’t prove his case,” Turner wrote in a text message to the Associated Press.
Jackson also claimed that Turner was stuffing numerous ballots and putting them through the machine.
“He was stuffing the machine with the ballots that he had already filled out for the folks he was supporting. He did that for a good little while, and he had some folks distracting the poll watchers,” Jackson said.
But we all know this is impossible, that it could never happen, and that you’re a racist for believing this story, right?
As an aside, Turner’s famous parents, Albert Turner, Sr. and Evelyn H. Turner, were charged with voter fraud in 1985 and unsuccessfully prosecuted by future Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who was a district attorney at the time.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member