The tightly-contested mayoral race in Starkville took another dramatic turn Friday with the announcement that Democratic candidate Johnny Moore would challenge the results of the May 16 Democratic Primary runoff.
Moore's legal counsel William Starks told the SDN on Friday Moore will file a Petition for Election Contest with the Democratic Executive Committee for the city of Starkville by the end of the day to challenge the results.
The Primary Runoff saw Lynn Spruill named the winner by six votes following previously rejected affidavit ballots being accepted.
Both Spruill and Moore held examinations of the ballot boxes last week and Starks said there were significant issues with some of the ballots that he believes would be successful in an election contest.
"There were probably 50 or more ballots we have identified that we believe there were issues with," Starks said. "And, with a 6-vote margin, it certainly changed the result of the election."
Though Starks could not give specific details, he said some of the problems included ballots that were excluded from counting that should have been counted, ballots that were counted that should have been rejected and problematic absentee and affidavit ballots.
Starks said there were also numbers that did not match up between how many people cast ballots and how many people signed the receipt books on election day.
Spruill told the SDN she had nothing to share about her own examination of the ballot boxes.
"Johnny is exercising his options, and I am certainly not surprised," Spruill said. "We'll wait to see what his challenge is once he takes that to the Democratic Executive Committee."
Starks said the next step after filing the petition would be to hold a hearing with the Democratic Executive Committee to present evidence, and then to file the petition in the judicial system. In order to have a judicial review in the circuit court, there is a 10-day window between filing the petition to the Committee and filing the petition in court.
"The Executive Committee has to give five days notice of any hearing, so it creates a very tight window for that to occur," Starks said.
Starks said if the deadline for the hearing was met, there would be a special circuit court judge appointed and it would proceed with a hearing and an expedited trial. The election commissioners would act as a special tribunal to advise the judge during the trial.
"The judge actually makes the decision on whether there were votes that were cast that should not have been counted, whether there were illegal votes cast, whether there should be a new election or not, or whether we can determine an outcome without a new election," Starks said.
If the committee is not able to meet the 10-day deadline for the judicial hearing, then the petition will be taken to circuit court and tried as a normal case.
If one of the parties does not like the decision the circuit court has come to, then they they may appeal to the Mississippi Supreme Court.