Second round of Aragon qualifying closes, candidate drops out

The coming election in Aragon continues to twist and turn after a specially called Board of Elections meeting to challenge the candidacy of John Akins for city council Monday.

Akins, who spoke for about 5 minutes, told the board that after qualify-

ing for the election last week, he has decided to withdraw and save himself what he said was future harassment.

He claimed in the meeting that since he filed his paperwork last Wednesday to run for the seat being left open by Hunter Spinks at the end of the term in December, that “Ken (Suffridge, mayor of Aragon) has Riley (chief of police Marc Riley) and everyone coming over to my house to check if I live there.”

“It’s like they’re harassing or spying on me,” he said.

Akins said he felt that if he stayed in the election, the situation would only get worse.

“I was going to stay in the race up through last night,” Akins said dur- ing Monday’s meeting. “But after they came by again I just decided to give up.”

Suffridge denied any allegations of harassment by himself or any other city officials over the last week that Akins made during the Board of Elections meeting.

“I never went to his house, nor had any communication with Mr. Akins,” Suffridge said.

The challenge came about when Aragon city officials questioned whether he lived at his address full time, and had violated requirements of state law and the city charter for residency to be a candidate for election.

“If Mr. Akin claimed residency and did not, in fact meet the requirement, that is tantamount to lying to government officials, or filing a fraudulent applica- tion,” Suffridge said.

Akins explained that he continues to pay bills, keeps his dogs, works and is constantly at his residence on Walnut Street, but that he has also been helping his family clean up property on Terry White Road during the past several months after his father-in-law asked for help.

When asked by the board where he spent 51 percent of his time, he said “lately I have been sleeping at the Terry White Road residence,” but that he intended to be back at the Walnut Street home full time before the election.

All of that was moot once he told the board he’d chosen to get out of the race.

After just a few minutes of meeting time, Akins wrote out a brief letter stating he no lon- ger wished to be on the ballot and had it notarized by Elections director Karen Garmon.

Garmon explained that his name would still appear on the ballot with Tammy Mulkey, former Mayor Brenda Gazaway and incumbent councilman Curtis Burrus, but that signs would be posted explaining that any vote for Akins would not count.

Mulkey filed her paperwork to run for Spinks’ open seat on Wednesday as well.

Aragon voters might not have to cast ballots for local offices since only one person has now qualified for each seat, but they will still get to vote on whether they will allow Sunday sales of beer and wine at local convenience stores on Nov. 3.