Dallas sheriff reviewing complaint against commissioner for blocking election worker from precinct

The Dallas County sheriff’s office on Friday confirmed that it is reviewing a complaint lodged by an election worker, who accused Commissioner John Wiley Price of assaulting her and kicking her out of a precinct last weekend.

Cynthia Stairs, 63, alleged Price knocked her phone out of her hand and told her to leave in a threatening manner on Saturday before the municipal elections, after she arrived at the Friendship-West Baptist Church for her assignment. 

Stairs told police in a report that was filed on Monday that the incident occurred after presiding election judge Dianna Jackson saw Stairs at the precinct, announced she would not work with her and left, per the Dallas Morning News. 

Stairs was charged with a misdemeanor assault on Jackson in November after the two worked together during the general election, but has pleaded not guilty. 

The election worker claimed that Price came to the precinct after she called him and while she was looking for replacements because the other five poll workers left with Jackson. 

Stairs said that Price, who she did not recognize at first but later identified after seeing a picture on a bus, came into the precinct "in a rage," and “lifts up his hand high and he whacks my hand and drives (the phone) to the ground.” 

He did not touch her again, but used his body as “a driving force with the threat of hitting me with his hands in the air and yelling at me ‘Get out of here, get out of here!’" she claimed. When she went outside, she was blocked from coming back in.

Stairs said she waited until she was sure the Dallas County Republican Party would back her, since “it is not an easy thing to do, to go against John Wiley Price.” 

She said she received the assurance from a committee of party members, including Chairman Allen West, who said that Price should be prosecuted and resign as county commissioner. “This type of tyranny will no longer be tolerated and accepted,” West stated, according to the outlet. 

Dallas Police spokesperson Corbin Rubinson confirmed to the Dallas Morning News that it received the complaint from Stairs, but the matter was passed to the sheriff's office because polling locations fall under the sheriff's authority. The sheriff's office has confirmed that it is "conducting a review" of the report.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.