Polygamist sect could lose its grip on tiny Utah community in landmark vote [View all]

[Loyd]

Source: The Guardian

Tuesday 7 November 2017 15.12 EST

A tiny group of voters could deliver one of the most significant results in local US elections on Tuesday when ballots are counted in a far-flung town run by members of a polygamist sect under the control of a so-called prophet from a prison cell.

For the first time in its troubled history, Hildale, a speck in the wilderness on the Utah-Arizona border, has candidates running for mayor and town council seats who are not associated with the local fundamentalist religious sect, currently run by notorious convicted child rapist Warren Jeffs.

If mayoral candidate Donia Jessop and the three “outsiders” competing for council seats all win their races against incumbents on Tuesday, non-sect members will effectively win control of the town.

“If we win we would take the majority of the council and that’s a big deal, then we could start the process for the whole town changing,” Jessop told the Guardian.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/nov/07/polygamist-sect-hildale-utah-election-outsiders

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I'm hopeful, but skeptical. That part of the country is firmly in Wingnut Nation.