Perry County Commission Chairman Albert Turner Jr. has been indicted of felony and misdemeanor counts of voter fraud.

The charges emanate from May 24 primary election and the Nov. 8 general election, according to a statement from Alabama Secretary of State John H. Merrill and Alabama’s Fourth Judicial Circuit District Attorney Michael Jackson.

According to the statement, Turner has been indicted for stuffing ballots into a voting machine in the Democratic primary – which is a misdemeanor.

Relating to the Nov. 8 general election, Turner has been indicted for ballot harvesting – a felony. It is alleged that Turner presented multiple completed absentee ballots for mailing from the U.S. Post Office.

Both of these matters are currently under investigation.

Jackson said he has “heard the cry from the citizens and the people running for office to clean up the elections in the Black Belt.” He requested anyone with information on either of these indictments to call the Attorney General’s Office or the Secretary of State’s Office.

When asked if this could affect the outcome of any of the elections held in May or in the general election, Merrill said “it is not appropriate at this time to comment because a lot of variables that factor into that decision and these matters are currently under investigation.”

“Since January 19, 2015, we have worked extraordinarily hard to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat in Alabama,” he said. “While the accused is innocent until proven guilty, it is important to know that this incident, just like the other 1,805 incidents we have investigated over the last eight years, will receive the full attention of this office as we confirm for the people for the state of Alabama that we are the gold standard for election administration in the United States.”