Peacock named in election complaint

Published 4:30 am Saturday, July 10, 2010

A Pensacola resident and Republican party official in Escambia County, Fla., has filed an elections fraud complaint against local Republican party chairman Jeff Peacock and his wife, Jodi.

Elizabeth Campbell’s complaint, filed with the Florida Elections Commission, alleges that Peacock violated the sections of Florida elections law related to submitting false voter information and fraud concerning a vote. She also alleges the couple were unqualified electors willfully voting.

Peacock, a former state Senate candidate in Alabama and a former Republican party official in Escambia County, Fla., said the allegations were attacks from political opponents.

Campbell, a Republican Party committeewoman, said she knew about the alleged violations because of her party position but that she filed the complaint as a private citizen.

“It’s a matter of principle,” she said. “It’s just completely unethical.”

Campbell included several documents in her complaint, which show that Peacock voted in Florida in 2006, 2007 and 2008. When Peacock ran for state Senate this year in Alabama, he said he was a three-year resident of Alabama; he purchased a home, which is listed as his homestead, in Alabama in 2005.

As of June, according to documents submitted by Campbell, Peacock was still a registered voter in Florida. He also swore a loyalty oath for committee chairman in Florida in 2008, stating his residence was in Century, Fla.

“Given his most recent claim to residency vis a vis his campaign for state Senate in Alabama, the homestead claim in Alabama, the extremely unlikely possibility he lived in a 500-square foot home in Florida when he owned a home valued at over $150,000 in Alabama, Mr. Peacock committed voter fraud on at least seven different occasions in Escambia County, Fla., over the course of four years,” Campbell stated in her complaint. “The fact he was highly engaged in local politics demonstrates that he clearly knew he was in violation of the law.”

Similar allegations were levied against Peacock during his Senate campaign. Danny Joyner, who won the primary for the party’s nomination, filed a complaint with the Alabama state party, alleging that Peacock was not a qualified candidate because he could not have been a resident for three years in Alabama and have voted in Florida during that time.

The Alabama state party rejected the challenge and allowed Peacock to run.

“This is simply a continuation of the slanderous attacks Mr. Joyner used during the primary,” Peacock said Friday. “Now it looks like Danny has solicited the support of someone who was suspended from her role with the Florida Republican party due to her disloyalty to the party. The primary is over, and it would be nice if Danny and his supporters would focus their efforts on winning the general election, rather than continuing their attacks on me.”