The Historical Society of Avon ParkAVON PARK, FL · EST. 1886
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Sheriff Broward Coker and the City Clerk in the 1951 Avon Park election

In the municipal election dispute of September–November 1951, when the Avon Park city council attempted to void all 397 ballots cast in the town’s separate Black polling place (Voting Place No. 2), two constitutional and municipal offices stood at the center of the controversy: Highlands County Sheriff Broward Coker and the City Clerk of Avon Park.[gough-1951][trib-1951-10-11]

The challenge brought by defeated mayoral candidate O. C. Wilkes and councilmen Edward W. Gough, Charles H. Lewiston, and John Delegal relied directly upon the eyewitness testimony of Sheriff Coker to establish alleged voter-assistance violations, and upon the administrative actions of the City Clerk to claim that the precinct’s election board had been illegally impaneled.[gough-1951][trib-1951-10-11]

Sheriff Broward Coker at Voting Place No. 2

Broward Coker served as Sheriff of Highlands County for five consecutive four-year terms from 1949 to 1969, making him the longest-tenured sheriff in Highlands County history.[hcso-history] A decorated Army veteran of World War II who received the Bronze Star and the Belgian Croix de Guerre, Coker was later elected president of the Florida Sheriffs Association (1956–1957) and served as a founding trustee of the Florida Sheriffs Boys Ranch before concluding his career as chief livestock theft investigator for the Florida Department of Agriculture.[hcso-history][fsa-coker]

On Tuesday, 11 September 1951, Sheriff Coker personally attended Voting Place No. 2, which municipal authorities had established at Avon Park City Hall to serve the town’s Black electorate.[trib-1951-10-11] When the election returns showed incumbent Mayor Wiley Sauls, Jr. and his council allies reelected with overwhelming support from Voting Place No. 2, the Wilkes-Gough faction challenged the result before the city council. The primary evidentiary foundation of their complaint was the sheriff’s personal testimony.[gough-1951]

As summarized in the council’s formal answer and recited by the Florida Supreme Court:

The sheriff, in attendance at polling place No. 2, testified that “more than one-half of the voters at said polling place were unlawfully assisted.”[gough-1951]

The council argued that under Section 19 of municipal Ordinance No. 12, an elector could receive assistance in marking a ballot only upon establishing physical disability due to blindness or the loss of use of hands, whereas Black election officials W. J. Robinson, Calvin Gibbs, Nathaniel Backer, and Earnest Sims had accompanied voters into voting booths without formal requests or physical disability.[gough-1951]

The Florida Supreme Court, affirming Judge Don Register’s peremptory writ of mandamus, held that neither the city council nor the municipal canvassing board possessed judicial power under the Florida Constitution to evaluate Sheriff Coker’s testimony, judge charges of fraud or irregularity, or discard certified returns. Justice Chapman ruled that a canvassing board exercises purely ministerial duties, leaving substantive factual contests over voter assistance exclusively to judicial tribunals.[gough-1951]

The City Clerk and the appointment of precinct inspectors

The procedural core of the council’s effort to void Voting Place No. 2 was the claim that the precinct itself and its supervising inspectors had been established without lawful municipal authority.[gough-1951][trib-1951-10-11]

Under Section 10 of Avon Park’s charter (Chapter 12514, Special Acts of 1927), the City Clerk was an appointive officer chosen by the City Council rather than elected by the voters:

The City Council shall, at its first meeting after each general municipal election, or as soon thereafter as practicable, elect a City Clerk and Collector… who shall hold office for a term of two years, or until their successors are elected and qualified.[lof-1927-12514]

Arguing before the Supreme Court in October 1951, city attorney S. Colquitt Pardee revealed that Voting Place No. 2 had been arranged “as an emergency action several days before the election,” rather than by pre-existing municipal ordinance.[trib-1951-10-11] To staff this emergency polling place at City Hall, the City Clerk administratively appointed W. J. Robinson as supervising inspector, alongside Gibbs, Backer, and Sims.[gough-1951][trib-1951-10-11]

In seeking to void the returns, the council’s answer alleged:

The City Clerk, “without any authority of law, and contrary to the ordinances of the City of Avon Park,” appointed W. J. Robinson an inspector at polling place No. 2.[gough-1951]

Pardee contended on appeal that municipal law required election inspectors to be appointed by the Mayor rather than by the City Clerk.[trib-1951-10-11] Because Mayor Sauls was himself a candidate for reelection benefiting from the Black electorate, the council maintained that the Clerk’s unilateral designation of Robinson was void ab initio.

Throughout the appellate proceedings and contemporaneous press reports, the official was referenced strictly by charter title—“the City Clerk”—because the legal challenge rested upon the jurisdictional powers of the office itself rather than an individual officer’s identity.[gough-1951][trib-1951-10-11]

The transition of 10 October 1951

The administrative dependence of the municipal government upon the City Clerk was highlighted on the night of Wednesday, 10 October 1951. Under threat of contempt sanctions from Circuit Judge Don Register, the retiring council convened at 8:15 p.m. at City Hall, rescinded the 25 September resolution, and recognized the original canvass of 15 September.[trib-1951-10-11]

Attorney Keith E. Collyer, acting in his capacity as a notary public, administered the oath of office to Mayor Wiley Sauls, Jr. and Councilmen Lenny Rush, Mark Smith, W. Clifford Thomas, J. B. Sparks, and Mannin Kirkland.[trib-1951-10-11] However, because the council had not yet chosen or seated a City Clerk under Section 10 of the charter to replace the outgoing administration, municipal operations were halted:

Without a clerk, the new board transacted no business. They agreed to meet at 8 A.M. tomorrow to get the city’s affairs in order.[trib-1951-10-11]

Both Sheriff Coker’s attendance at Voting Place No. 2 and the City Clerk’s emergency appointment of W. J. Robinson document how the institutional machinery of local law enforcement and municipal administration was mobilized during the 1951 election crisis, prior to the Florida Supreme Court’s decisive ruling reaffirming the integrity of the ballot returns.[gough-1951][trib-1951-10-11]

References

Where this comes from

Evidence
corroborated — More than one independent source agrees.
Review
unverified — Drafted from sources but not yet checked by a volunteer.
Rights
society

Sources

  1. Supreme Court of Florida, Special Division B (Chapman, J.), Gough et al. v. State ex rel. Sauls et al., 55 So. 2d 111 (Fla. 1951) (1951) · official
  2. The Tampa Tribune (Tampa, Fla.), Supreme Court Halts Action Contested Avon Park Vote; and Avon Park Council Action Questioned, by Hayden Williams — The Tampa Tribune, 11 October 1951, page 17 (1951) · newspaper
  3. Highlands County Sheriff's Office, Sheriff History — Highlands County Sheriff's Office (2026) · official
  4. Legislature of the State of Florida, Chapter 12514 (No. 709), Laws of Florida 1927, Special Acts: the charter of the City of Avon Park (1927) · official
  5. Florida Sheriffs Association, Past Presidents: Sheriff Broward Coker (1956–1957) (2026) · secondary

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