Contest over mayoral results heads to circuit court
The final decision concerning ballots cast in the May 16 Democratic Primary runoff for mayor will be made by a judge in Oktibbeha County Circuit Court.
Democratic mayoral candidate Johnny Moore attended a hearing in front of the Democratic Executive Committee Tuesday, where Democrat Lynn Spruill was officially declared the winner by a unanimous committee decision.
Despite Spruill being certified as the winner by party officials, Moore still plans to formally challenge the election results in circuit court after filing a petition for judicial review on Monday.
Spruill was certified as the winner with a six-vote margin of victory. However, Moore’s legal team claims they have identified more than 50 ballots that should either be reconsidered by the judge, or thrown out completely in favor of a new municipal election for mayor.
The committee held the hearing at Moore’s request in the City Hall courtroom to discuss alleged irregularities in the ballots that were rejected and accepted. Moore’s attorney William Starks said a petition for judicial review of
election contest that Moore submitted on Monday took the matter out of the committee’s hands and placed it under the jurisdiction of the circuit court.
Starks said the amount of evidence that would need to be reviewed would take two to three days, and Tuesday was the end of a 10-day time limit for the committee to make a decision.
Starks said the evidence included over 50 ballots that would need to be presented and examined by the committee in order to carry out the entirety of the hearing. Starks said the amount of time the examinations would take - in comparison to the time constraint set by the committee - was the reason Moore filed in circuit court.
Moore’s legal team claims the election results were not signed by the chair of the Starkville Municipal Democratic Committee, but instead were signed by Albert Gore, Jr.- the chair of the Oktibbeha County Democratic Party.
The Starkville Municipal Democratic Committee is a subcommittee of the Oktibbeha County Democratic Party and Spruill’s attorney Jim Mozingo claims the committee was acting within in rights to accept the signature.
Another argument from the Moore camp claims the elections were conducted with paper ballots, which goes against the election contract stating it should be conducted with electronic ballots.
Mozingo said the problems found during Spruill’s examination of the ballot boxes would not change the election results in Moore’s favor.
After the hearing was held, the committee voted based on evidence presented and unanimously decided to declare Spruill the winner in the primary runoff.
“I appreciate the deliberations of the committee and I will look forward to the next step, which apparently is going to happen in the circuit court,” Spruill said.
Starks told the SDN that the Oktibbeha County Circuit Court now has sole jurisdiction in the matter.
“We will proceed in the court of law,” Starks said. “The ruling that Lynn Spruill is the winner just went away because it’s filed with the circuit court.”
Spruill’s attorneys said their team was pleased with the unanimous ruling handed down by the committee.
“The Moore campaign had a chance to present anything it wanted and decided not to go forward with evidence,” Mozingo said. “We were prepared to go forward with further evidence of why Lynn Spruill won, but there was no need when Moore chose not to go forward.”
No timetable has been given for when the results will be challenged in circuit court and a special circuit court judge has yet to be appointed.