On Tuesday, February 10, 1942 on the front page of the Key West citizen, there’s a small article talking about the local labor union.Now the labor union in question was the local Mason and bricklayers union. There was some elections that were being held for new officers for the labor union. There was also some movement going on where the black labor union was being absorbed into the regular labor union. And they were fighting it because they wanted their own representation. It was just a boiling mess of a meeting. And in that meeting as they were electing new officers, Charles Parra who was the current financial secretary of the bricklayers and masons union was brought up for reelection, and he was so opposed that his name was shouted down at the elections. And another man named Charles Greenwood took over that position. Again, you had multiple factions within that labor union fighting for control.
Then later on, we noticed that on October 12, 1956,the Florida Supreme Court hands down a decision, the decision they handed down was dealing with the Key West city commissioners election race, Charles Parra had run a campaign against jack see Delaney. And at the end of the election when all of the votes were counted, the key was city commission acting as the canvassing board declined to declare a winner in the race. So the election happened. Lots of things went on. And in the end, no winner could be declared. So this brought about a legal battle initiated by Charles Parra and he was asking the Florida Supreme Court to declare him the winner in the elections on the voting machines, 2302 votes or registered for Delaney, 2234 votes were registered for Parra, the controversy arose from the manner in which 256 absentee ballots were cast. It’s like we have Groundhog Day all over again, with what’s going on. With our current Florida elections. And the recounts and the battles that are going on, we’re still dealing with these same issues. So the controversy arose on those 256 absentee ballots in the manner in which they were cast. So let me tell you what some of the legal judgment rendered by the Supreme Court actually says about the craziness that went on with this election. So on 247 of the 256 absentee ballots, a clear choice was able to be determined and of those 49 were marked for Delaney and 198 of those absentee ballots were voting for Parra. So if all the absentee ballots were rejected, then Delaney would win the election. If all of the absentee ballots counted, then Parra would win the election. The shenanigans with the absentee ballots were what put them all in question. So let me tell you the details. 96 of the absentee ballots were invalid because I’m quoting here, they were not returned to the office of the supervisor of registration ie, “the clerk” by the elector or by mail, but work returned by other persons including Parra so the candidate is taking ballots to the supervisor of the registration, the clerk.
The 96 ballots were commingled with the remainder of the 247 absentee ballots, which further complicated the situation because 154 of the ballots were declared by the Supreme Court to be illegal, because the ones who cast them swore they expected to be absent from the city instead of the county as the law provides. So those ballots were mixed in with the other absentee ballots, and the Supreme Court said, Nope, they’re illegal. Furthermore, the ballots were declared defective for various reasons. Now, let’s listen to the reasons some of these ballots were declared. And this is right out of the Supreme Court rendering the ballots were declared effective, because the date on the application for them didn’t appear on some the notary had not completed this field. And on some, there was a signature of one witness, but no signature at all. And to cap it off, the Supreme Court found that the names and addresses of persons applying for absentee ballots during the week immediately prior to the election had not been posted or published as required by law.
So as a consequence, Delaney who received a majority of the votes personally registered on the machine was declared entitled to the office of the Key West city commission. But there was a sufficient number of challenge ballots to change the result of the election. You’ve got missing signatures, you’ve got missing dates, you’ve got missing witnesses on some of the applications, there was no witness signed. Well, other applications had the same person signing as the witness for multiple ones. So there were a lot of irregularities going on in the and let me read you what basically happened the Court announced that voting was permissible only when the statute providing for a specified that the ballot should not be deposited in the ballot box nor the voters name entered on the polis nor the voter counted until the ballot had first been made out by the voter himself upon a legal form of valid So in other words, it’s establish when they have to vote in person and when they have to vote in absentee.
But here’s what it says. And this is important, the court recognize the rule that the right to vote is one the voter should personally exercise and that absentee voting quote here being an exception to the general rule cannot be authorized. So in other words, if you’re trying to make a decision not to disenfranchise voters, those people that voted in person at the ballot booth get priority of the people that voted absentee ballots because the guaranteed right and authorization does not carry with the absentee ballots. This decision was eventually handed down. And essentially, all of the defective absentee ballots were thrown out. Since the illegal absentee ballots were enough to alter the election. The winner of the election should be determined by the registered votes on the machines. So the Supreme Court upheld that jack Delaney was now a city Commissioner, and it was today in Key West history.
On November 19, 1957, just one year later that Charles Parra finally won a seat on this Key West city commission in a runoff election, I guess all’s well that ends well and I’m sure we’ll see the name Charles power pop up again in Key West history today in Key West history has been brought to you by 43 keys media to learn more about all the crazy events that have happened in Key West and what’s currently going on in our beautiful Florida Keys, visit http://43keys.com.
