Commissioners hear from Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Chairman addresses voter fraud claims

WARNER ROBINS – The Houston County Commissioners met for their regularly scheduled meeting at the Houston County Annex Tuesday, July 23. 

The Board first learned about Sacred Heart Catholic Church and their community outreach work from Deacon Jim Hunt. 

Hunt said Sacred Heart Catholic Church started from humble beginnings, with its first mass in the early 1940s at the United Service Organizations. 

“It was celebrated on a piece of plywood, stacked on some Coke crates,” Hunt said. “In 1945, our first church was dedicated and in 1961, due to the growth a new church was built. In 2007, our present worship space was built, and we seat right at 1,000 people.” 

Hunt mentioned they have since built a school, social hall, office complex and a Christian Service Center, their outreach facility. 

“Since January of this year, our outreach facility has served right at 3,100 clients and we’ve given out right at $52,000 in assistance to these people which include help with rent and medication and whatever else they need,” he said. 

According to Hunt, one part-time staff member runs the outreach facility along with 70 other volunteers. 

“We work with the community, other churches and other agencies in taking care of those that we can,” he said. “The need is great as you probably know, and they’re struggling constantly to stay up with.” 

Sacred Heart Catholic Church also has a free clothes closet which operates on donations and a garden with many sorts of vegetables. Hunt said the vegetables that do not get picked go to the Christian Service Center and other agencies to be passed out to the community. 

“It’s a constantly growing community and we’re just happy to be here,” he said. 

“Thank you for coming here this evening and sharing with us,” Commissioner Gail Robinson said. “We appreciate the work that you and Sacred Heart and the outreach center does as it’s very important to help our community.”

“Last couple of years, I’ve gotten to know a lot of folks at Sacred Heart,” Commissioner Shane Gotwalls said. “I’m very impressed with the caliber of people you have serving over there, so it’s good folks doing really good work and we just appreciate everything y’all contribute to this community.” 

In new business, the Board approved bids which included a 2024 F-150 XL SuperCrew 2WD and fencing at the landfill. 

A bid for a new generator for the Houston County Detention Center was also approved. 

“This is a larger generator that will be able to run more of the Detention Center if power goes down there,” Chairman Dan Perdue said. “It is important to keep that facility as cool and comfortable as possible for its occupants, otherwise we expose ourselves to some legal liability. This will be able to run more of the facility there.” 

Also in the meeting, the Board approved a purchase of property costing $241,293.42 located on Old Perry Road while also adding the authorization for the Chairman to sign any and all closing documents. This property will be the location of the new Bonaire Elevated Storage Tank.  

“We are excited about this water tank going in Bonaire as there have been some tight times recently with regards to water levels in our tanks,” Perdue said. “While we did not have to go into restrictive watering, this tank will help us ensure that we have a little bit more freeboard and, most importantly, not that we would ever go below this, but we have the ability to put out fires in this area as well which is really important.”

During the public comment period of the meeting, Meg Mehserle came to share her story about what she believes to be voting corruption in Houston County. She has been attending several meetings sharing her stance. 

Mehserle said she began poll-watching during the midterm elections through the first three weeks of early voting. 

“On day five, several entitled employees of two separate county offices teamed up to dismiss me from all poll watching,” she said. “The long attack dismissal email arrived immediately after I had correctly brought to the election leadership’s attention what I thought were election machine mistakes.” 

She said that the records that day indicated that at least 78 fewer voters had voted than previously, which according to her, is an early sign of vote flipping. 

“The attack dismissal email wrongly accused me of many lawless and shameful actions, all of which I remain 100% innocent,” she said. “The attack email implicates the Houston County Attorney Tom Hall, the County Elections Director Debra Pressword, County Republican Party leadership and many other County entitled employees. 

Perdue responded to Mehserle saying the Board disagrees with her assertions. 

“The election process in Houston County is safe and transparent. The Board of Elections and the staff have performed at an exemplary level,” he said 

Perdue said Mehersle’s allegations of vote flipping were addressed by the Board of Elections. He said there was no technical way possible for fewer votes on a ballot marking device than the previous day. 

“Specifically for Rozer Park in the year that you are addressing, we have the handmarked paper records where each and every day staff members monitored the voting machines and found them to be in order,” he said. “You cannot go in the middle of the day and check because there may be a discrepancy between a ballot marking device and a ballot scanning device with regards to how many votes have actually been cast.”

Perdue stated her accusation that the Board of Elections terminated her services as a poll-watcher is incorrect.  

“A poll-watcher is appointed by a party that has a candidate on the ballot or a candidate that is on the ballot appoints someone,” he said. “You served at the pleasure of the Houston County Republican Party, which by the way, despite their name, is not an entity of the Houston County Government. It was the party that revoked your credentials as a poll-watcher.”

Perdue then read an email from the Chairman of the Houston County Republican Party. 

The email claimed Mehserle caused the polling location to be open late and photographed a ballot which she shared with others. According to the email, these actions violate the Georgia election laws. 

“The allegations that you have raised about the vulnerability of electronic voting machines is not something that this Board can address….In short, Houston County is going to continue to abide by Georgia law and continue to use the state’s electronic voting machines until a court order is issued or ordering we cannot do so or the legislature changes its method. Houston County will not opt for paper ballots,” Perdue said. “We hope that you bring new concerns in the future to this Board rather than continuing to harp on this concern.” 

The next Houston County Commissioners’ meeting will be held August 6, 9 a.m. at the Houston County Courthouse on Perry Parkway. To view the minutes of this meeting in full, go to houstoncountyga.org/commissioner/meeting-minutes.cms.