Challenge not likely in city
Published 12:00 am Saturday, August 28, 2004
DEMOPOLIS – A challenge isn’t likely to come in the city council’s District 2 race.
Councilman Willard “Peanut” Williams, who finished third of in a field of three, said Friday that although he had until Monday to make a final decision, he did not expect to file a challenge in Tuesday’s election.
“I don’t think, at this time, I’ll challenge the results,” he said.
Williams finished with 127 votes, just 10 votes behind Charles E. Jones Sr., and 50 votes behind Freddie Charleston, who captured 173 votes.
Controversy had erupted around absentee ballots in the district race, and questionable campaigning near the polling place at the National Guard Armory.
Williams, who had consulted with an attorney, estimated the cost of a challenge to be around $15,000.
Jones said he wasn’t planning on filing a challenge to the election results either.
“I didn’t see anything from my point of view and where I was standing that merited a challenge,” he said.
Jones spent most of the day standing about 50 feet away from the entrance to the poll.
“That white car over there is 30 feet away,” he said Tuesday. “That’s why I’m across from it just to make sure.”
Jones stood in front of the door most of the day, he said. His son, Charles E. Jones Jr., was a poll watcher was coming in and out of the poll most of the day.
“There were some questions about absentee ballots,” he said on election night at city hall.
Jones Sr. said he’d heard some talk about some things “but I didn’t see anything myself that was a problem.”
“I’m just going to get my offense ready to go again,” he said. “I’ve got no defense, so it’s all offensive [for the next three weeks].”