FORT DEPOSIT, Ala. — An absentee-ballot dispute in Fort Deposit’s August 2025 municipal election led to election results being set aside, a replacement vote that changed the town’s mayor, and felony charges against two candidates originally declared winners. Lowndes County Circuit Clerk Stephanie Powell Jones has confirmed to StopVotingFraudAL.com that both criminal cases were bound over to the grand jury.
The proceedings show how an election challenge and a criminal investigation can follow separate paths. Residents returned to the polls to select their local officials, while the question of individual criminal responsibility moved through the courts.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall announced April 15, 2026, that former mayor Jacqulyn Boone and former town council candidate Steven Thigpen had each been arrested and charged with unlawful use of absentee ballots. His office confirmed that both were declared winners in the August election, which was subsequently set aside because of voting irregularities. A special election followed in January 2026.
The election challenge was underway by September 2025. WAKA Action 8 News reported that town attorney Arlene Richardson had filed suit against Thigpen. A September 22 hearing before Lowndes County Circuit Judge Cleveland Poole focused on whether Thigpen was a Fort Deposit resident, with another hearing scheduled to examine allegations involving absentee ballots.
In her written response to StopVotingFraudAL.com, Jones identified two civil election challenges. Case CV 2025-900051 was disposed of by a bench verdict on October 6, 2025, and case CV 2025-000007 was disposed of by a bench verdict on October 14, 2025. Her response establishes the case numbers and decision dates; StopVotingFraudAL.com has not obtained the underlying judgments.
WAKA reported in November that Poole found hundreds of illegal absentee votes, discarded those votes and the affected election results, and ordered a new election. Its subsequent coverage identified the affected contests as the mayor’s race and the District 2 town council race.
The disruption extended beyond the disputed candidates. According to WAKA, only the two council members who had run unopposed were sworn into office on November 3, leaving them to run the town while preparations proceeded for another election. Darrell Heartsill served as mayor pro tem. Preparations included training new poll workers and plans for election monitors.
Residents voted again on January 13, 2026. Madelene Means defeated Boone for mayor, 271 votes to 199. Adriana Gray, Debbie Webb and Yvonne Jones won the three available District 2 council positions, according to WAKA’s published results. The town’s official website now identifies Means as mayor.
Absentee voting declined sharply between the two elections. In its January 13 election-day report, WAKA said more than 400 absentee votes had been cast in August, compared with 10 in the replacement election.
The criminal cases followed. Marshall’s April announcement identified unlawful use of absentee ballots as a Class C felony carrying a possible sentence of one year and one day to 10 years in prison. The attorney general’s Special Prosecutions Division was assigned to prosecute the cases, and the office withheld further investigative details at that time.
Jones identified Boone’s District Court case as DC 2026-131 and Thigpen’s as DC 2026-132, confirming that both had been bound over to the grand jury. That referral does not itself establish that an indictment was returned. As of October 20, 2026, StopVotingFraudAL.com has not verified a subsequent indictment or final criminal disposition.
Boone and Thigpen are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. Setting aside election results does not itself establish either defendant’s criminal guilt.
StopVotingFraudAL.com is continuing to investigate these cases and will report further developments as additional information is verified.
