By Billy Davis

A state investigation of an election commissioner, who stood accused of mishandling absentee ballots, has concluded with no charges filed.

Julius Harris, 64, was recorded in a four-minute video that showed him seated at a table with stacks of absentee ballot envelopes days before a county election last November. A teenager, using a camera phone, filmed Harris as they struck up a conversation about school.  

 The video had been filmed, without Harris’s knowledge, at First Delta Federal Credit Union, located in Sardis. Harris works next door at North Delta Enterprise Community, a non-profit agency.

The Panolian was shown a copy of the video shortly after it was recorded.

A state investigation kicked off when William Pride, a run-off candidate for District 2 supervisor, included the video among other allegations of election fraud in the supervisor’s race.

Pride had lost a November 24 runoff to incumbent Vernice Avant.

The losing candidate sent the video to the Secretary of State’s office, which forwarded the complaint to the Attorney General’s office.  The Secretary of State oversees elections but only the Attorney General has authority to investigate and bring criminal charges.

Pride alleged Harris had worked on behalf of his opponent, claiming he drove voters to the polls, and he considered the video his best evidence of alleged wrongdoing.

The Attorney General’s office, in an official two-page memorandum, concluded that Harris did seem to possess absentee ballot envelopes in the video. But his action failed to violate Mississippi election law, the report concluded. The memo is dated April 10, 2010.

 “That’s ridiculous,” said Pride, when reached for comment about the state agency’s decision.

“The investigator told me – from her own mouth – that (Harris) would not be able to serve in his position anymore,” said Pride. “That really disappoints me.”

Harris declined to comment when told by The Panolian this week that the investigation had ended.  

Harris, the election commissioner for District 2, has denied that he handled absentee ballots prior to the November runoff. But five elderly voters, interviewed by a state investigator, said Harris came to their homes and helped them fill out absentee ballots.

Assisting elderly voters in their homes is legal in Mississippi, though the “help” is sometimes performed by candidates or their campaign workers to collect an absentee vote.

The AG investigation became public last December, when a state investigator attended the regular meeting of the Panola County Election Commission. The Panolian was told the investigator had the names of 15 absentee voters who said Harris had helped them fill out ballots.  

The meeting concluded with the investigator, Cordelia Bailey, and commissioners looking through election boxes to locate absentee ballot materials.

Two election observers, representing the Mississippi Secretary of State’s office, also bolstered Pride’s election-day allegations. The observers wrote, in separate reports, that poll workers mishandled absentee ballots at Sardis and at Longtown precincts, among other questionable actions that were recorded.  

Both election observers also noted, in separate reports, that they saw Harris’s name written as a witness on absentee ballots.

A spokesman for the Secretary of State’s office declined comment about the investigation.

Pride considered contesting the election results but decided not to, pointing to a similar court battle in Como that stretched over two years. The losing candidate would have gone to court with the 144-vote deficit, with absentee votes unlikely to change the outcome of the election.  

After the run-off election, the video of Harris did not remain a secret for long. Some local officials gathered December 10 at the public library in Batesville, where they were shown the video of Harris and read the election observers’ reports.  

Those who attended included Circuit Clerk Joe Reid and election commissioner Ronald McMinn, with Pride also in attendance.

A spokesman for Attorney General Jim Hood confirmed June 11 that the state office had dropped its case against Harris, when The Panolian contacted the state office for an update.

A copy of the two-page memorandum was sent to The Panolian after the newspaper submitted a Public Records Request for items related to the state investigation.

The memorandum is a “case file review” of the investigation, a spokesman for the Attorney General’s office explained.

It reads like a summary of the months-long investigation, with a conclusion about whether to pursue charges.

The name of the memo’s author, and any recipients, are redacted in the newspaper’s copy.

Citing the investigator’s interviews with voters, the memorandum’s author concluded that:

•The voters requested an absentee ballot and requested that Harris assist them

•They voted for the candidate of their choice

• They are disabled, either temporarily or permanently, as required by state law.  

 “I have been unable to locate any statute that would prohibit Mr. Harris, as an election commissioner of the county, from providing the type of assistance that is evident in this particular situation,” the memo’s author wrote.

“That is not to suggest that the ‘appearance’ of impropriety is not present,” the writer added.

Also mailed to The Panolian were the investigator’s interviews with the five elderly voters, and interviews with three of Pride’s campaign volunteers, the recorder of the video, and Pride himself.

Pride, in his interview, told the investigator that he observed Harris “soliciting voters” while Pride was campaigning in District 2.

Harris was not interviewed because he “invoked his right to remain silent,” said a spokesman for the Attorney General’s office.