Tensions flared during the city's hotly contested 1995 mayoral election. Allegations of electoral fraud had dogged the city's first African American woman mayor, Audrey Carey, since her 1991 victory in a four-way race. Supporters of Republican candidate Regina Angelo alleged that many registered voters in neighborhoods Carey had carried heavily used false addresses. In response, four years later deputy sheriffs were stationed at polling places and challenged voters to provide proof of residency and identity. Although she won, Carey's supporters claimed that the deputy sheriffs had singled out minority voters for such challenges, and accused the Republicans of voter suppression. These tensions were only aggravated when the council selected the city's Republican chairman at the time, Harry Porr, as the new city manager. Carey was defeated by Tyrone Crabb, a black man running on the Republican line, in 1999. Porr was fired, rehired and fired again in 2001. Crabb died suddenly of a heart attack ten days before he was slated to take office. The vacancy was filled by his widow, Mary.