A former small-town Alabama mayor is now facing felony charges in a case that reads less like a normal election dispute and more like a warning label for absentee ballot abuse. In Fort Deposit, Alabama, a town with roughly 900 residents, the August 2025 municipal election somehow produced more than 1,000 votes. Yes, really. That is around 120 percent turnout, which is impressive if your voter base includes ghosts, tourists, and house pets.
State officials were not amused.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall announced that former Mayor Jacqulyn Boone, 51, and city council candidate Steven Thigpen, 49, were arrested and charged with unlawful use of absentee ballots, a Class C felony under Alabama law. If convicted, each could face one year and one day up to ten years in prison.
BREAKING: Former Ft. Deposit mayor, city council candidate arrested by Alabama AG’s office https://t.co/oNzpzo1mdB
— WSFA 12 News (@wsfa12news) April 15, 2026
The raw numbers alone were enough to raise eyebrows. A town of 900 people generating over 1,000 votes is not exactly subtle. More than half the ballots cast were absentee, which only intensified concerns once irregularities surfaced. It did not take long before officials realized something was badly off.
Both Boone and Thigpen were initially declared winners after the August election. But a court later stepped in and scrapped the results entirely. Lowndes County Circuit Judge Cleveland Poole ruled that more than 400 absentee ballots were invalid. According to reports, Boone and Thigpen had personally witnessed ballot affidavits, at times separately and at times together.
That detail matters. Election laws exist for a reason. Procedures around absentee ballots are meant to protect voters, verify identity, and reduce opportunities for coercion or fraud. When candidates themselves are allegedly tied to the handling or witnessing of large numbers of ballots benefiting their own races, confidence in the process tends to collapse immediately.
A special election was held in January 2026 to restore order and give Fort Deposit residents a legitimate result. Boone lost her re-election bid, while Thigpen withdrew from the race. Madelene Means was elected as the town’s new mayor.
The case is being handled by Attorney General Marshall’s Special Prosecutions Division, and officials say additional details remain limited because the investigation is ongoing.
This also is not an isolated case in Alabama. Just weeks earlier, authorities arrested three Monroe County residents on dozens of charges tied to alleged ballot harvesting and unlawful absentee ballot activity in another municipal election. That suggests state officials are taking election integrity enforcement far more seriously than many critics claim.
Boone and Thigpen, like anyone charged with a crime, are presumed innocent until proven guilty in court. But the election itself has already been invalidated, and that speaks volumes.
The broader lesson is simple. Americans are constantly told fraud concerns are imaginary and safeguards are unnecessary. Then a town of 900 somehow reports over 1,000 votes. Sometimes reality arrives with a calculator.