South Georgia mayor among those arrested, indicted for election interference

Prosecutors say that Owens and the two election officials improperly blocked voters from casting ballots in a special election late last year that was already fraught with drama before polling places were locked the morning voting was supposed to kick off.

The legal issues had been brewing for a while in the majority-Black city of about 5,000 residents, but it all came to a head on Nov. 5 after the city informed voters via the city’s public Facebook account on Nov. 4 that the “final day of voting and special election scheduled for November 5, 2024 has been canceled.” The post included a resignation letter from Williford and Ford, leaving the town without election officials.

The election cancelation allegedly prompted Owens to instruct the Camilla chief of police to “post officers outside the polling places to prevent anyone, including poll officers and citizens desiring to vote, from entering into the polling place and casting votes,” according to the indictment.

He also allegedly instructed city employees to take down election signage indicating where polling places for the special election were located and did “personally affix signage on the door of the polling place stating” that the election had been canceled.

Owens, who spoke to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in November, said the Nov. 5 special election had to be canceled because of the resignations.

“From our perspective, at 7 o’clock this morning when the election did not kick off as advertised, the election became void,” Owens said at the time. “It won’t be acknowledged or accepted.”

The chief judge of the South Georgia Judicial Circuit disagreed and issued a ruling at 11:30 a.m. on Nov. 5 appointing replacement election officials and ordering polling locations to stay open for 12 hours.

The indictment alleges Williford and Ford did “willfully neglect or refuse to perform” their duties after they resigned a day before the scheduled special election. By resigning the day before, the indictment alleges both Williford and Ford did so in attempt to prevent people from casting their ballots.

Credit: Courtesy City of Camilla

Credit: Courtesy City of Camilla

The special election was for two city council seats which had been vacated, one by the death of a council member and the other after the Georgia Court of Appeals upheld that Venterra Pollard was not a city resident and couldn’t serve on the city council.

Even though the appeals court issued the ruling, election officials in Camilla still allowed Pollard to qualify as a candidate for the November special election.

A Mitchell County superior court judge again ruled Pollard wasn’t allowed to participate in the election and ordered Williford and Ford, as the city’s election officials, to remove Pollard from the ballot and discount any votes cast for him, which they appealed to the Georgia Supreme Court, who denied their request Nov. 1.

The indictment alleges Williford and Ford failed to post notices that any ballots casts for Pollard would not be counted. Owens previously called the judge’s ruling on Pollard unlawful and said the election should have gone ahead with all the votes counted, including those for Pollard.

All three were indicted on charges of interference with elections and conspiracy to commit election fraud, while Williford and Ford were also charged with failure of public officer to perform duty.

The charges stem from an investigation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation into the election interference allegations. The files were turned over to South Georgia Circuit District Attorney Joseph K. Mulholland, who presented the case to a Mitchell County grand jury on Wednesday.

Mulholland declined to comment on pending litigation on Thursday.

In a statement, the Georgia NAACP expressed concerns over the arrests and indictments, adding that they “are actively investigating the circumstances surrounding these arrests.”

Attorney Chris Cohilas, who represented Camilla residents in the court battle over city council seats, declined to comment specifically on the indictments but said Owens “rules with an iron fist and he does not embrace transparency.”