Perry County Commission Chairman Albert Turner J. has been indicted on voter fraud charges.

Fourth Judicial Circuit District Attorney Michael Jackson, along with Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill, announced the two-count indictment Wednesday.

Turner, the son of civil rights activist Albert Turner Sr., is charged with voting more than once, which is a misdemeanor, and harvesting ballots, a felony.

The allegations stem from two different elections in Perry County – one in May and one in November, both in 2022.

Jackson said Turner is accused of “stuffing” ballots into a voting machine in the May Democratic primary election.

“He was there most of the day stuffing filled out ballots in favor of the candidates he was supporting,’’ Jackson said. “Witnesses came forward, and we felt we had enough to present to a Perry County grand jury.”

In the November general election, he said, Turner is accused of mailing an undisclosed number of absentee ballots.

Efforts to reach Turner for comment weren’t immediately successful. Turner’s parents were unsuccessfully prosecuted for voter fraud by then-U.S. Attorney Jeff Sessions in the 1985.

Perry County jail and sheriff’s officials would not say whether Turner has already been booked into the jail.

Jackson and Merrill did not speak to the specific races in which Turner is accused of trying to influence. They said it’s too soon to know if those races could be impacted by the results of the ongoing investigation and Merrill said other people could be charged.

Jackson said the investigation is being turned over to the Alabama Attorney General’s Office to avoid any possible conflict of interest.

Jackson, who has been district attorney since 2004, lost the district attorney’s race in May to Robert H. Turner Jr., who is Albert Turner’s first cousin.

“As you know the Black Belt was the heart of the Voting Rights Act,’’ Jackson said.

“I’ve heard the cry of the citizens and the people running for office…to clean up elections,’’ he said. “It deters people from running if you know your opponent is going to have a million absentee ballots. It also deters people from voting – what do they always say? ‘My vote doesn’t count, doesn’t matter.’’’

Turner was first appointed to the commission in 2000 to serve the remainder of his father’s fourth term of office after his death. He has since won multiple re-lections.