Peacock complaint dismissed

by Atmore News Staff
July 28th, 2010

On Thursday, July 22, the Florida Division of Elections threw out a complaint against former Alabama State Senate candidate Jeff Peacock and his wife, Jodi. The complaint had been filed by Pensacola resident Elizabeth Campbell and alleged that the Peacocks had violated Florida voting statutes. The complaint was found to be “not legally sufficient” to warrant additional investigation.

The Division of Elections released its decision in a letter to Campbell. The following statements are taken from the letter: “Your elections fraud complaint alleged that Jodi and Jeff Peacock violated a number of provisions under chapter 104, Florida Statutes, including false swearing, fraud in connection with voting and neglect of duty as a precinct committee person. Per our authority … we examined your complaints. We find that the facts are not legally sufficient to trigger further criminal investigation of any potential violation of current statutes.”

In the letter, Maria Matthews, Assistant General Counsel for the Florida Department of State, confirmed that the Peacocks never voted in Florida and Alabama during the same time and never cast more than one vote in an election. Based on its findings, the Division of Elections determined no violations of Florida law had occurred and therefore the complaint was dismissed.

In a written statement, Jeff Peacock expressed satisfaction with the decision: “I have said all along that this was a frivolous and politically motivated complaint. The fact that it was dismissed so quickly, before even clearing its first hurdle, clearly demonstrates just how little credibility this complaint had. It is disturbing to consider how much potential damage one person can do by simply filing a baseless complaint and then broadcasting the story to the local media.

“This puts to rest this non-issue that my political opponents, on both sides of the state line, have attempted to use against me over the last couple months. I have now been cleared of any wrongdoing in both Alabama and Florida. I sincerely hope that our local political dialogue will finally begin to focus on real issues, rather than ridiculous political games.”

In a letter to the editor published in Atmore News, July 14, 2010, Peacock answered at length the voter fraud allegations that had been made against him and his wife.

Popularity: -0% [?]