While no action stemmed from its special-called meeting and closed session, the Christian County Election Board convened Thursday morning — in an effort to discuss a petition filed by Mark Graham for a recount in the Ward 7 City Council Republican primary.
Though Graham fell to Doug Wilcox by the slimmest of margins, 185-184, irregularities have since been reported by County Clerk Mike Kem — who a week ago noted the issues could be traced to an error within the Tennex software. That error reportedly led to 109 Ward 8 voters getting the opportunity to vote for Ward 7 constituents.
Jennifer Brown, publisher of the Hoptown Chronicle, opened Thursday’s meeting by addressing the board and stating that while a closed session could legally be called, perhaps it wasn’t necessary — because this type of litigation is unlikely to be contentious.
Graham adjoined her comments.
Kem noted the meeting was called in order to analyze the irregularities of the voting center in question, while County Attorney John Soyars recommended a closed session to analyze and sort Graham’s petition.
The board voted 3-1 to go into closed session, with Christian County Chief Deputy Jason Newby the lone “nay.” He, alongside Soyars, addressed Brown’s concerns.
After returning from closed session, Kem called for a vote to do away with voting centers and move back to precincts in Christian County. Soyars advised him that wasn’t allowed, because such an action hadn’t been posted on their special-called agenda.
Following the meeting, Soyars, Newby and Christian County Sheriff Tyler DeArmond offered some clarity on the next steps.
Soyars noted the Election Board eventually needs to have a response to Graham’s petition, and that nothing else is being filed on behalf of Kem. Asked if it had been confirmed there was no way to isolate the 109 incorrectly filed ballots, Soyars said he wanted to wait for all of the evidence to be presented in Christian County Circuit Court.
Judge John Atkins is holding the first hearing for this at noon June 1, and has already ordered all materials involved in this election error be turned over to the custody of the sheriff’s office. DeArmond said he and his constituents were in the process of this and froze operations for Thursday’s meeting.
As to Kem’s suggestion for a vote on switching back to precincts, Newby did note that it would simplify and likely prevent this mix-up from occurring again, because it would keep voters’ ballots within their precinct.
The difference of this year, as opposed to 2020 when voting centers were used, is that it was uneventful and came through a different voting software.
Ben Fletcher, attorney for Graham, previously told the News Edge that Atkins could potentially be creative in deciding the victor. A re-vote of the entire ward, or the 260 who properly voted in the primary, could be called. In a rare instance, a coin flip could determine it.
But it’s going to be at Atkins’ discretion.
