"He drafted a letter, saying there was no fraud. It went no further. A complaint was filed in behalf of Alberta Henry saying there was fraud. What happened was there was a Tongan church down the street from the voting place. If you happened to be there, you were thinking, 'Where did they come from?' We'd never seen them before. Some were not able to speak the language or write, and Ed was pointing and telling them, put your mark here. The results were very telling. Jeanetta won, but in instructing the nonmembers, they didn't tell them to vote for her vice chairperson, so Alberta's vice chair was voted in. They forgot to tell them to vote for both."

Lewis says simply, "There was no election fraud." He continues, "We're not violating any rules. They're welcome to go over my head if they need to. The complaints have lacked merit."

Williams doesn't plan to step down anytime soon from her NAACP post. Duane Bourdeaux, who recently retired as a state legislator, urges others to support her.

"I know people have concerns," he says. "It's not my job to criticize. There are positive things she's done, too. The thing I always say — and I get asked this a lot — is we've got to do everything we can to support her."

Houston thinks there's another solution: "There needs to be term limits. You can be effective for only so long. You need a change after 10 years. It's the right thing to do."

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E-mail: drob@desnews.com