A Black man who says he was elected mayor of a rural Alabama town but has been kept from taking office by White leaders of the town has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit.
Legally yes, but part of the article makes it sound like there was a regular election between two candidates with everything you expect and the winner is being denied. That’s not the case and we don’t know how the citizens actually feel about this. It did, after all, take decades for someone to do this.
Not that any of this should have ever happened in the first place, they should have just run the elections normally.
Yes, I’m sure they haven’t held an election in 165 years because the 85% black population all agreed it would just be a waste of time. Are you serous?
There actually was a regular election- the incumbents just declined to run a candidate against Braxton. Are you suggesting we should cast doubt on that result until the incumbents agree to qualify a candidate (so, never)?
Yes, I’m sure they haven’t held an election in 165 years because the 85% black population all agreed it would just be a waste of time. Are you serous?
What are you suggesting happened? Nobody seemed to give a shit for decades even though the situation seems clearly in favour of whoever actually decides to go through the official channels. It sounds like everyone has just been completely apathetic to who’s running the town, including the 85% black majority.
There actually was a regular election
What I mean by “regular” is the kind of election where people go out to vote for one of two or more candidates. Someone winning by default doesn’t say much about what the people want, except that they, once again, don’t seem to really care.
What are you suggesting happened?
I’m suggesting that what happened with this election may have happened in the past.
When he approached Stokes for information about running for mayor, Stokes allegedly gave Braxton “wrong information about how to qualify” for the election, and did not provide public notice to residents about the election.
just weeks after his election, Stokes and his council members Gary Broussard, Jesse Donald Leverett, Voncille Brown Thomas and Willie Richard Tucker allegedly “met in secret to adopt a ‘special’ election ordinance.” Notice of the meeting was not published, and the group set a special election for Oct. 6, 2020.
No notice of that election was ever published, according to the lawsuit. Because the election was not publicized, only Stokes and his council members qualified.
you wrote:
It sounds like everyone has just been completely apathetic to who’s running the town, including the 85% black majority.
Does it? It actually sounds like a white minority council bends over backwards to keep themselves in power by ignoring opposition and holding private special elections.
What I mean by “regular” is the kind of election where people go out to vote for one of two or more candidates. Someone winning by default doesn’t say much about what the people want, except that they, once again, don’t seem to really care.
Don’t confuse oppression with apathy.
Stokes and his council allegedly changed the locks for a third time, and according to the lawsuit, Braxton and his council have not had “uninterrupted access” to the building since April 2021. This meant that in November 2022, he could not help set up voting machines for Newbern’s most recent election.
They will not let them hold elections. Read the article before you “innocently assume” these people “don’t seem to really care”.
There are a large number of local elections decided because only one person applied for the job and they don’t have any issues like this.
Yes, but in this case a different (much dumber) system had been established for decades without objection it seems. That’s different than just having regular, official elections with just one candidate, which is what they should have done in the first place. We don’t know who would have won if it was a normal, two-candidate election.
This going to court is a good thing because a) anyone could have filed the paperwork and won by default, including someone who would abuse the position and be really terrible for the town and b) this is certainly the end of the unofficial-official system they’ve had and might bring bad stuff to light. But keep in mind that the article’s coming on very strong because they mostly cite the prosecution.
