Elections complaint filed against Walton sheriff

DeFUNIAK SPRINGS - The Walton County Sheriff's Office has strongly denied any wrongdoing after a complaint was filed with state officials alleging elections fraud.
The complaint states that Sheriff Ralph Johnson told Sheriff's Office employees to sign petitions to get his name on the November election ballot. The complaint also alleges that deputies in uniform and while driving patrol cars were soliciting signatures on behalf of Johnson.
Sheriff's Office spokesman Capt. Eddie Farris emphatically denied the allegations Wednesday.
"At no time has Ralph Johnson asked deputies or supervisors to sign petitions," he said.
Sheriff candidates need 343 petition signatures by noon Monday or pay $6,555 to get their name on the ballot, according to elections officials.
The complaint also states that several people in the Sheriff's Office were pressuring employees to sign petitions while on duty. Dispatch Supervisor Donna Smith is one of the four people named in the complaint who was handing out petitions to deputies.
Smith denied asking anyone to sign a petition.
"I haven't even signed one yet," she said.
Smith said she knows she can't campaign for Johnson while on duty. She said she has also never seen anyone ask or be asked to sign a petition.
Several other employees were named in the complaint, but Farris said they have also denied having anything to do with forcing petitions on employees. The Daily News was unable to reach them for comment.
The Daily News received the anonymous complaint by fax late last week. The complaint, which purportedly was filed with the Florida Division of Elections, states that the complainant is an employee of the Sheriff's Office and is worried that if identified he or she will lose their job.
Officials at the Florida Division of Elections said they can neither confirm nor deny that a complaint has been filed.
Farris said the complainant is just a disgruntled employee who has an "agenda." Farris added that he believes the complaint was filed to give the Sheriff's Office a "black eye."
The complaint also alleges that Johnson had two tickets for his friends cleared from the records. Farris gave the Daily News copies of tickets for Martin Tucker and James McBroom, who are named in the complaint as Johnson's friends. The complainant stated the tickets could not be found in Sheriff's Office computers.
Farris said the tickets for Tucker and McBroom are in fact still in the system and Johnson doesn't have the authority to waive citations.
The complaint said Johnson was so angry with the deputies for giving his friends tickets that he confiscated radars from every deputy's patrol car. Farris said that some radars have been collected, but only to inventory them. Once they are accounted for they will be given back.
Farris said that some radars were in the possession of deputies that shouldn't have had them, which is against policy. The Sheriff's Office was conducting the inventory so they could be reissued to the proper deputies, he said.