Election contests filed in Etowah County Commission, House district races

Etowah County Commission candidate Carolyn Parker is going forward with the contest she filed Wednesday with the Etowah County Democratic party after her opponent was certified as the winner in the May 24 primary vote.

Jeff Overstreet had filed a contest in the race for commission District 4, but late Thursday he said he'd withdrawn his challenge.

Gil Isbell and Jamie Grant, candidates for House District 28 and 29 seats, respectively, filed contests with the state GOP, meeting the deadline to file.

They were not alone at the state level. The Alabama Republican Party issued a list of contests filed; it included House Districts 28, 29, 1 and 2, as well as Senate District 27, Lauderdale County Commission District 1 and several executive committee seat votes.

Party Communications Director Jeannie Burniston said the there's no timeline yet for hearings on the contests.

Primary elections are a function for political parties to select their nominees: it will be the political parties that hear the contests. For county races, it will be on the county party level.

The state GOP will have to consider any contest stemming from the House District 28 and 29 races,.

Parker said Democratic Party officials will meet Saturday morning — the time has not yet been determined — to hear her contest. She and her lawyer also will be there.

Parker challenged incumbent District 5 Commissioner Jeffery Washington in the primary race. When ballots were tallied, Washington received 662 votes and Parker got 565.

In the District 28 race, Mack Butler was certified as the winner over incumbent Isbell.

In District 29, Mark Gidley was certified as the winner over Grant.

But questions were raised about the vote on election day, when some voters reported to election officials that races that should have been on their ballots were not.

When local election officials and the Secretary of State's office investigated, they determined that an earlier issue that arose regarding the updating of voter information after redistricting that was supposed to be corrected had not been corrected.

Secretary of State John Merrill specified in a statement that candidates and voters in the House District 28 and 29 races were negatively impacted by the error; Probate Judge Scott Hassell indicated the commission races on the ballot, for Districts 4 and 5, likely were affected, too.

Merrill noted that no voters were denied ballots on May 24; he said there's no mechanism to re-do the election.

Isbell said his attorney believes there is such a mechanism in the Code of Alabama, and he called it to the attention of an attorney for the secretary of state.

Attorney Mike Haney, who represents Grant, indicated the Code does allow for a "do-over."

Overstreet said he made the decision to withdraw his challenge after reading comments from Merrill saying there was no avenue to re-vote the races. He indicated he, too, believed state law allows it, but given the position taken by the state's highest election official, Overstreet said, he didn't see a way to go forward with a challenge of the vote.

Overstreet ran against incumbent Tim Ramsey for the District 4 commission seat. Ramsey took the race, 1,672 votes to Overstreet's 1,390.

Merrill said a representative from his office has been in Etowah County this week to work with the Board of Registrars see that the voters list is updated properly. It will not be an issue in the runoff vote; there are no runoffs needed for local races.

Merrill described the situation as a first for Alabama.

Burniston indicated that's part of the problem. The only case similar to this anyone can recall in state politics is the contested Bill Baxley vs. Charlie Graddick gubernatorial race in 1986, when Graddick was disqualified as the Democratic nominee for encouraging crossover votes in the primary runoff with Baxley.

Contact Gadsden Times reporter Donna Thornton at 256-393-3284 or donna.thornton@gadsdentimes.com.

This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Etowah election results challenged by commission, House candidates