- December 26, 2024
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Updated 5:47 p.m. Oct. 15
Alan Lowe, a candidate for Palm Coast mayor, has never voted in a presidential election; he said he has never been interested. He also declared in 1993 that he was renouncing his citizenship in the United States, as part of a spiritual awakening. He said in an Oct. 15 interview with the Palm Coast Observer that the renunciation was never legally binding, and he only felt that way temporarily.
With the election less than three weeks away, anonymous emails were received by the Observer with several documents attached that appeared to be stamped and recorded by the Flagler County clerk of courts in 1993. The documents, signed by Lowe, say that his name is now legally “Alan S. Lowe Ambassador for Christ,” rather than just Alan Lowe.
Supervisor of Elections Kaiti Lenhart said that the possible name change, if it were to be legal, wouldn't change the fact that Lowe is on the November ballot.
"Once a candidate is qualified to be on the ballot, their name cannot be removed without a court order," she said.
Lowe also wrote in a court document that the United States is merely a “construction of political privilege” and that although he was born in the U.S., he never asked to be a citizen and doesn't want to be one anymore.
“I have not assented to the gracious offer of citizenship from any political corporate community thereof,” he wrote on Sept. 22, 1993, in another document submitted and filed as a court record. “I am not a citizen nor resident of the United States incorporated, or any state thereof.” He declares himself a “free man.”
“I … hereby give notice and make known that I am a foreign state to the United States, as well as a nonresident alien to the political community thereof. Therefore: I, Alan S. Lowe, do not knowingly or willingly accept any benefits from the United States.”
Moreover, Lowe declares in another court document, he is not subject to pay taxes to the Internal Revenue Service. He says he was under “obvious duress” when he agreed to pay taxes and shouldn’t be held responsible.
(At this time, Lowe also was working with SunTrust Bank to refinance a second mortgage to pay the IRS. SunTrust ultimately had to take Lowe to court and foreclose on the house to pay the IRS debt that Lowe owed.)
In the Oct. 15, 2020, interview, Lowe said none of these court documents were legally binding, regardless of his intentions in 1993. In fact, he said, he maintained his passport throughout.
“I had just started a deep study of the Bible and had a spiritual awakening,” he said. “I was having a problem in my head between issues of the government, such as abortion, and what was happening in the Bible. … I’m a very outspoken person, so I typed up those things and recorded them, but it wasn’t long after that, continuing to read the Bible, when I read that there is an ability to live — like, give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s — there is an ability to live with the two.”
“It was a temporary mindset,” he said.
As far as his lack of voting record, Lowe confirmed that he registered for the first time just this year. Lenhart said he registered in February 2020 and voted in the August primary.
“I just never had any interest” in voting, he said. “I was just living my life, doing my thing, never had any interest. I don’t know that it matters how many times a person has ever voted in their life.”
He said he has been involved in the community, including providing humanitarian supplies for people in the Caribbean, while he has lived in Palm Coast, proving that he is engaged in improving society.
