Bad Links?
Other glitches?
Notify Webmaster

Judge to hear charges against local lawmaker

By J. FRANK LYNCH
jflynch@theCitizenNews.com

Rep. Roberta Abdul-Salaam said she won’t let an ongoing investigation into charges she violated state elections laws overshadow her first term in the General Assembly.

"I have no comment on that,” said the Democrat from Riverdale before the start of business Tuesday morning. "Right now I’m just concentrating on moving forward. It’s a distraction and I’m not going to let it interfere with my business here.”

A freshman legislator, Abdul-Salaam won the District 74 House seat by beating Republican challenger Emory Wilkinson of Fayetteville in November. But it was during her August primary runoff with fellow Democrat George Jeburk that Abdul-Salaam is alleged to have broken election rules at two Fayette County polling places.

The formal complaint was filed by Marilyn Watts, chairman of the Fayette County Elections Board. She said that on the day of the runoff Abdul-Salaam openly campaigned inside the Morning Creek precinct at New Hope Baptist Church, and the Europe precinct at Liberty Baptist Church.

Poll workers who recognized the candidate asked her to leave, but she refused, claiming to be a poll watcher, Watts said. County marshals were called to both polling places, Watts said, and could have made an arrest, but Abdul-Salaam left before they got there, Watts said.

A longtime political activist in Clayton and Fulton counties, Abdul-Salaam returned a short time later to New Hope Baptist with state Rep. Tyrone Brooks of Atlanta. According to Watts, Brooks proceeded to videotape the comings and goings of voters, while Abdul-Salaam greeted them at the door — a violation of the rule about no campaigning within 150 feet of a polling place, said Watts.

"There was a lot of arrogance going on there,” said Watts. "We're just not going to allow those things in Fayette County.”

Marshals were called a second time, but it took them more than an hour to get there, Watts said. By then, Abdul-Salaam was sitting inside a parked car and no longer in violation. "We should have had her arrested,” Watts said later.

Instead, the Fayette County Elections Board discussed the matter, and voted 2-1 to turn the findings over to the Fayette County Sheriff’s Department, who forwarded the results of their investigation on to the state, Watts said.

Meeting Dec. 15, the state elections board decided that the Abdul-Salaam charges were serious enough to warrant a hearing before an administrative court judge, and turned the case over to the state Attorney General’s office. Cara Hodgson, a spokeswoman in the Secretary of State's office, said it will be about two weeks before a hearing date can be set.

Similar to a trial, the hearing allows lawyers from both sides to argue the case. The judge will offer an opinion to the state Elections Board, which will then render a verdict, Hodgson said.

The punishments aren’t severe, Hodgson said, and could range from a fine to a letter of reprimand. None of that is of interest to Watts, who simply wants to maintain order at the polls.

"Our main concern here is, we cannot allow chaos on our election days,” Watts said. "Many of our older poll workers, our seniors, felt threatened and intimidated by some of these actions. Our board is charged with running legal elections, and so we can't tolerate these little incidents when they happen.”