Firm News

Tulsa Tribune

Friday, August 12, 1983

Ex-legislator says Draper sought notary.

By Jim Gipson
Tribune State Writer

    MUSKOGEE – House Speaker Dan Draper asked that a notary public be sent to a Bunch grocery store where an earlier witness said more than 30 ballots were fraudulently notarized, a former legislator testified today.
    Bob Parris, who served with Draper in the Legislature for six years in the 1970s, said the speaker contacted him prior to the 1982 run-off election in which Draper’s father was an unsuccessful candidate.
    Draper, D-Stillwater, and House Majority Leader Joe Fitzgibbon, D-Miami, are on trial for vote fraud and conspiracy in that election..
    Parris said Draper told him, “I’m up here in Westville or somewhere and I need a notary tonight.  Can you find me one?”
    Parris testified he contacted Sequoyah County Deputy Court Clerk Faye Newton and told her the speaker had requested she travel to Girdners Grocery in Bunch to notarize absentee ballots.

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