Former Alabama Mayor Arrested for Absentee Ballot Fraud After Her Town of 900 Produced Over 1,000 Votes

A former small-town Alabama mayor is now facing felony charges for allegedly rigging an election with absentee ballots. And the numbers tell you everything you need to know about how brazen this scheme allegedly was.

Fort Deposit, Alabama has a population of about 900 people. Somehow, the August 2025 municipal election produced over 1,000 votes. That’s roughly 120% voter turnout. More than half the ballots cast were absentee.

Let that sink in for a second. A town where 900 people live had more votes than residents. You don’t need to be a math genius to see something was seriously wrong.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall just made it official. Former Mayor Jacqulyn Boone, 51, and city council candidate Steven Thigpen, 49, have both been arrested and charged with unlawful use of absentee ballots. It’s a Class C felony in Alabama, carrying one to ten years in prison.

WSFA 12 News broke the story:

Both Boone and Thigpen were initially declared winners in their respective races. But it didn’t take long for officials to realize something was off. Voting irregularities were flagged almost immediately after the results came in.

A judge stepped in and threw the whole thing out. Lowndes County Circuit Judge Cleveland Poole annulled the election results after ruling that more than 400 absentee ballots were invalid. The reason? Both Boone and Thigpen had personally witnessed the ballot affidavits, sometimes separately and sometimes together.

WSFA reported on the arrests:

Attorney General Steve Marshall announced the arrest of two Lowndes County residents on charges related to the unlawful use of absentee ballots in the August 2025 Ft. Deposit municipal election.

Jacqulyn Boone, 51, and Steven Thigpen, 49, were each charged with unlawful use of absentee ballots, a Class C felony under Alabama law. Boone previously served as mayor of Ft. Deposit, and Thigpen was a candidate for the Ft. Deposit City Council.

Both were declared winners in the August 2025 election. The election was later set aside due to voting irregularities, and a special election was held in January.

Under Alabama law, unlawful use of absentee ballots is punishable by one year and one day to 10 years in prison.

A special election was held in January 2026 to give the people of Fort Deposit the fair vote they deserved. Boone lost her re-election bid, and Thigpen withdrew from the race entirely. Madelene Means was elected as the new mayor.

The case is being handled by AG Marshall’s Special Prosecutions Division. Officials have not released additional details because the investigation is still ongoing.

This is far from the only ballot fraud case AG Marshall has been pursuing in Alabama. His office has been on a tear. Just weeks earlier, three Monroe County residents were arrested on a combined 37 counts of ballot harvesting and unlawful use of absentee ballots tied to the Frisco City municipal election. Two of those women were courthouse employees.

Libs of TikTok highlighted the Monroe County case:

State Auditor Andrew Sorrell, who is running for Alabama Secretary of State in 2026, has been vocal about the Fort Deposit case. He’s pointed to it as proof that the state needs a dedicated election security division.

ABC 33/40 covered the broader details:

Both face unlawful use of absentee ballots, classified as a Class C felony under Alabama law. Conviction carries one year and one day to 10 years imprisonment.

The case is handled by the Attorney General’s Special Prosecutions Division. Officials declined to release additional information due to the ongoing nature of the investigation.

The Fort Deposit election irregularities prompted formal review, leading to the invalidation of the August 2025 results and subsequent special election to restore electoral integrity.

The bigger picture here is impossible to ignore. People constantly try to tell you that voter fraud doesn’t exist, that concerns about mail-in ballot integrity are overblown. And then you get a case like this, where a town of 900 people somehow produces over 1,000 votes. Where more than 400 absentee ballots get thrown out by a judge. Where the candidates themselves were allegedly witnessing the very ballot affidavits that kept them in power.

Boone and Thigpen are presumed innocent until proven guilty. But the election results were already invalidated. The people of Fort Deposit already had their votes stolen once. At least now, the justice system is catching up.