Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill called ex-Brighton Mayor Brandon Dean a "criminal" during a fiery Twitter exchange on Tuesday despite Dean never being indicted, let alone convicted, of a crime. Dean claims the term carries racial overtones.

Brandon Dean

In an interview with AL.com, Merrill defended his use of the word, citing an ongoing investigation into absentee voter fraud that resulted in Dean's election being overturned last year and a state Ethics Commission finding that Dean improperly used a city police vehicle.

"This is what we know: We know Brandon Dean is a criminal, and we know that because Brandon Dean took a squad car that was owned by the city of Brighton to Atlanta on Thanksgiving for personal use," Merrill said.

Dean chose to get a job at a Washington, D.C., nonprofit focused on ballot access issues instead of running in the city's runoff election. A retired Jefferson County judge overturned the election after deciding that Dean's margin of victory came from improper absentee ballots.

He said Merrill's tweets constituted "veiled bigotry."

"To call [me] a criminal in that platform, then that says a great deal about maturity and understanding that this person has of their role," Dean said. "It's important that voters of the state of Alabama recognize what this man's principles are."

Dean initiated the Twitter exchange, criticizing Merrill's investigation into potential absentee voter fraud in the Black Belt as a form of voter intimidation and suppression.

"You clearly have an issue with poor black people casting votes. Deplorable and bullish are your tactics," he wrote. "Stay out of my hometown and stop harassing voters for how they decide to cast a ballot. If you want to know what happened see me don't harass my people."

In a phone interview, Dean said the investigations were part of "the modern-day effort that represents Black Codes and all the legal methods that were used to force poor people off the ballot."

But Merrill said the cases he's looking at all stemmed from local residents' complaints.

"African Americans in Wilcox and Perry counties and Bullock County reached out to us and asked us to investigate the issues related to the election process in those counties. I'm the only person thats involved in the investigation that's white. I'm excited about helping our citizens that want to help themselves," he said. "I don't care if you're a Democrat or Republican and I don't care if you're black or white, we're going to treat everybody the same. [In these cases,] they're all African Americans and they're all begging for help."

Merrill said his office turned over all relevant material to state Attorney General Steve Marshall in the Brighton case.

"We really want this turned over to a grand jury because we believe when we do there will be multiple indictments, and when that happens it'll be a great day for America."

Of Brighton residents, Merrill said his office doesn't "hear much from them now because the cancer's been removed" -- a reference to Dean. "But chemotherapy is still coming."