Woodville — According to Mary Goodrich, she never called the Wilkinson County Clerk’s office to request the absentee ballots that later appeared in her post office box.

But appear they did.

Goodrich was one of six witnesses who testified for the prosecution Tuesday in the Wilkinson County voter fraud trial.

Goodrich said the absentee ballots appeared in her mailbox after a conversation with Bernetta Hollins, defendant Connie Hollins’ sister, who, while in the course of conversation, asked for Goodrich’s mailing address.

Goodrich testified she received a call from Connie Hollins asking Goodrich to notify her when absentee ballots arrived in her mailbox.

“I called Connie and told her the ballots had come to my house because she told me to,” Goodrich said.

“She asked me to tell my kids to sign them,” she added.

Goodrich said she told Connie Hollins she would not ask her children, who were living in the Jackson-Byram area, to come fill out their absentee ballots.

Mary Goodrich said Hollins told her to leave the documents on her porch, and Hollins would come pick them up and take them to Jackson to meet with three of the four Goodrich children.

Goodrich said after returning home from work that evening, the ballots left on her porch were gone.

Latonia Goodrich Jackson said she was living in Byram at the time of the election and swore under oath she’d never requested ballots be sent to her or any of her siblings.

But near the beginning of August, Jackson received word from her mother she would be hearing from Connie Hollins.

On Aug. 1, Hollins called Jackson and told Jackson to tell her twin sister, Latashia Goodrich, and her brother, Roy Goodrich, to meet with Hollins at the Texaco station right off the interstate near Byram.

Latashia Goodrich, while admittedly non-apprehensive about signing an absentee ballot she’d not requested, said she waited with her sister for some 20 minutes when Connie Hollins showed up.

Latashia Goodrich said she was in contact with her brother, Roy Goodrich, but he couldn’t make it to vote and sign his paperwork.

Once Connie Hollins arrived, that’s when both Latashia Goodrich and Latonia Jackson said they filled out their ballots based on a sample ballot that was already filled out. Both ladies said they saw the sample ballot as an instructional.

“(Connie Hollins) said ‘Mark whatever’s on your sample ballot,’ and I did,” said Latashia Goodrich.

“Everything that took place took place on the back of my sister’s trunk,” Latashia Goodrich said.

“(Connie Hollins) watched me mark ballots on the trunk of my car,” Jackson said.

Jackson said her sister inquired about her brother’s ballot and application.

“My sister asked was it OK for her to fill out my brother’s (ballot and application) and she said it was fine,” Jackson said.

Latashia Goodrich said due to Roy Goodrich’s absence, Hollins assured her it would be alright to fill out her brother’s ballot and sign his voting application.

“At first, I was hesitant about it. My twin sister refused to,” Latashia Goodrich said.

But even through her misgivings on filling out her brother’s ballot and forging his name on both the application and the return envelope, Latashia Goodrich completed his paper work in his absence.

With Latashia and Roy Goodrich’s ballots and applications filled out, signed and notarized by Connie Hollins, who is a notary public, Jackson said her ballot and application’s envelope was damaged and accidentally glued shut due to the rain.

Jackson said she figured this malfunction would make her application and ballot null and void since she couldn’t sign her envelope, but Jackson said Hollins’ assured her she would take care of it.

Roy Goodrich testified Tuesday he never requested, signed nor submitted an absentee ballot in the 2007 election in Wilkinson County.

However, upon finding out about the voter fraud trial that was based on their family’s absentee ballots, both Jackson and Mary Goodrich said they were contacted by Connie Hollins.

Jackson said she was at a football game when she received a call from Hollins notifying her she would be receiving a subpoena for a case dealing with her absentee ballot.

Jackson said she told Hollins her ballot was never submitted because of its defect, but she said Hollins insisted she’d signed it.

According to Mary Goodrich’s testimony, she was working with her church at a function held at a local school when she was notified Connie Hollins wanted to speak to her.

“I got in the truck with her,” Mary Goodrich said.

Mary Goodrich said Hollins told her about the upcoming trial and said, “Everybody don’t have to tell the truth.”

When asked by the prosecution if she felt like Hollins was asking her to lie, she said yes.

“I’m not gonna lie for my momma,” Mary Goodrich told the court.

After being indicted on three counts of voter fraud following the 2007 Wilkinson County Democratic Primary and the two years of investigation that followed, Connie Hollins’ defense will present its case at 9 a.m. today.

The judge said he expects the trial will end by this afternoon.