Editing Avon Park, Florida (section)

=== ''Gough v. State'' ===
In September 1949, the city elected the youngest mayor in United States history at the time, 21-year-old Wiley Sauls Jr., largely due to the votes of the second precinct, which was populated mostly by black residents. Sauls Jr. received 76% of the precinct's votes, and he went from third out of five candidates to first and usurped incumbent mayor O. C. Wilkes, who only received 20 votes from the second precinct.

In the following city-wide election on September 11, 1951, the second precinct was allowed for the first time to be staffed and managed by its majority black populace. The overseeing inspector of the second precinct and the second precinct's clerks were all black. Wilkes challenged Sauls Jr. for the mayorship, and he received a slim eight vote majority in the first precinct, but Sauls Jr. received 92.5% of the votes in the second precinct and comfortably defeated Wilkes. Two new city councilmen, Mannin Kirkland and J. B. Sparks, were also elected to the city council largely due to the votes of the second precinct.

The incumbent city council met four days after the election and heard Wilkes' protest, who claimed that there were voter irregularities in the second precinct and that they should install him as mayor. The city council refused Wilkes' demands, but he began lobbying local influencers and convinced the council to convene a special session on September 25. Wilkes alleged in this second meeting that the second precinct had not returned all of its blank ballots after the election and that this called into question the validity of the results. The council voted 3–1, with one abstention, to throw out the votes of the second precinct, which prompted Wilkes to immediately begin acting as mayor, while Kirkland and Sparks were to be replaced by E. W. Gough and Oscar Wolff.

Sauls Jr., Kirkland, and Sparks hired attorney Keith Collyer, who argued that it was unlawful that a mere claim of irregularities would give the council the authority to install themselves into office in the face of a challenge to their power. While the circuit court sided with Sauls Jr., Kirkland, and Sparks, and demanded that the three be put into power, Wilkes and the council through attorney S. C. Pardee Sr. pushed the case upwards through the judicial system and also began to argue that the second precinct's inspector, W. J. Robinson, had helped people to cast their ballots. The [[Supreme Court of Florida]] also voted in favor of Sauls Jr., Kirkland, and Sparks, and the three were then installed as mayor and councilmen respectively and put municipal governments on notice that they did not have the authority to invalidate an election in order to remain in power.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Byrne |first=Jason |date=August 28, 2022 |title=Avon Park City Council Throws Out All Black Votes in 1951 Election |url=https://floridahistoryblog.com/avon-park-city-council-throws-out-all-black-votes-in-1951-election/ |access-date=July 29, 2024 |website=Florida History Blog}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=November 20, 1951 |title=Gough v. State |url=https://casetext.com/case/gough-v-state-1/ |access-date=July 29, 2024 |website=Casetext}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=October 10, 1951 |title=Supreme Court Halts Action In Contested Avon Park Vote |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-tampa-tribune-1951-disputed-mayors/126001630/ |access-date=July 29, 2024 |work=[[The Tampa Tribune]]}}</ref>