With just over three weeks left in the race, the Selma Municipal elections took a strange turn Monday when a Selma voter made an allegation of vote coercion.

Shirley Ann Woods said that Lorraine Capers and Cynthia Perkins (Mayor James Perkins Jr.’s wife) went to Woods’ mother’s house and spoke to her mother about voting.

Woods said they then picked up Woods and took both women to City Hall.

She said that once they arrived at City Hall, Capers took Woods’ ballot and filled it out for candidates that Woods does not support.

“When we went to the City Hall, Ms. Capers filled out the ballot. She filled it out for James Perkins, Bennie Ruth Crenshaw, and Frank Chestnut,” Woods said. “I signed my name and I printed (my name). She filled the rest of it.”

When asked about the role the mayor’s wife played, Woods said Perkins was not involved in marking the ballot or telling her who to vote for and that she was outside of the room.

Woods added that while in the car on the way over, Capers had told the mother and daughter that she would help them vote.

“When we got in her car, she had already told us she was going to fill it out,” Woods said. “If they was to ask us if we needed any help, she was going to be the helper. I know how to vote, I don’t need help.”

Woods also said that she didn’t plan to be out of town on election day, August 24th, and didn’t plan to vote absentee.

“I didn’t expect them to come down there today when she came… She was like do you want to go get an absentee vote? I said, ‘yeah,'” Woods said. “I didn’t really know what an absentee ballot was, I thought it was something they mailed to your house.”

The Alabama Secretary of State office has been contacted about the allegations.

However, they must get the accusations in writing before the office can act.

“We need to get the facts and forward (them) to the (Attorney General’s) office,” Trey Grainger, of the Secretary of State’s office said. “This office’s policy is, if there is a complaint and it is in writing, we present it to law enforcement for proper review and investigation.”

Woods said she was upset about the situation.

“I feel used because I didn’t want it to be like that,” she said. “I didn’t want to cheat, I wanted to be honest. I feel used.”

City Council candidate Lola Sewell was at City Hall, picking up absentee ballots.

She spoke with both the mother and daughter, who she said she knew were her supporters.

“She took (Woods’) ballot and filled it out herself, she took both of their ballots away from them,” Sewell said. “That’s stealing and it’s nothing but wrong.”

It’s the second time in as many weeks that the absentee ballots have become an issue.

Last week mayoral candidate Glenn King threatened to sue the city if the box was not moved.

The absentee box was originally in City Hall but after a judge found examples of wrong-doing in the 1992 election, the box was moved for the next two elections.

The Consent Decree lasted through the 2000 election and has since expired, allowing the box to move back to Selma’s City Hall.

The Selma-Times Journal tried repeatedly but could not contact Capers for comment.

Attempts were also made to reach Selma election officials.