The Alabama Republican Party’s candidate committee is expected to decide tonight whether to hear a challenge to the primary election results in House District 2 because 70 people voted in the wrong district.
Ben Harrison won the June 21 runoff for the district seat, which is in Lauderdale and Limestone counties. Butler defeated Jason Black in the runoff.
Kimberly Butler filed the contest. Butler missed the runoff because she finished in third place in the May 24 primary, 14 votes behind Black.
Voting officials have acknowledged that 70 people who voted in the Republican primary that day were wrongly assigned to House District 1 and should have voted in House District 2. Those voters, who were in two precincts, should have moved to House District 2 under this year’s new district map but were left in House District 1 because of mistakes made by the Lauderdale County Board of Registrars.
Butler said she went door-to-door in the two precincts and gathered affidavits from 42 of the wrongly assigned voters who said they would have voted for her if they had been given a correct ballot for District 2. In an affidavit filed with the state party, Butler said her findings indicate that she should have made the runoff and is asking the state Republican Party to hold another runoff between her and Harrison.
“I took affidavits and a notary and knocked on the door of all of these people and asked them had they been given the right ballot how would they have voted,” Butler told AL.com last week. “And so I have proof not only that the election was wrong, but I also can tell you how it should have turned out.
“To me it’s very black and white. They ran the wrong runoff and they have to do it again.”
Harrison sent out a statement this morning encouraging the state GOP to uphold the results.
“Overturning an election is incredibly serious, and I hope no one takes it lightly,” Harrison said. “The voters of District 2 spoke clearly in both the primary and runoff, and I believe it’s important for everyone to respect their voice. I understand and share the concerns about the mistakes made in the redistricting process, but that doesn’t make it okay to discount thousands of votes from legitimate voters.
“We need to address the mistakes so we can make sure they never happen again, and we also need to look at the facts overall. I believe the numbers are clearly on my side. Approximately 70 people received incorrect ballots for State House, while I won the Republican Primary by 175 votes, and the runoff by 861 votes. The bottom line is that there were nowhere near enough votes affected to make up that difference.”
In the primary, Harrison received 3,290 votes, 32.8 percent. Black received 3,115, 31.1 percent. Butler received 3,101, 30.9 percent.
In the runoff, Harrison received 4,308 votes, 55.6 percent. Black received 3,443, 44.4 percent.
Joel Blankenship, attorney for Harrison, said he is confident the party will uphold Harrison’s nomination. If it stands, Harrison wins the seat because there is no Democratic or Libertarian candidate on the ballot in November. Harrison would replace longtime Rep. Lynn Greer, who did not seek another term.
“Alabama law is clear on this matter, even though there potentially was an issue, there are not enough voters that were affected by the mistake to overturn the election,” Blankenship said. “I have faith that the Alabama Republican Party will uphold the law on this matter and affirm the will of the voters by certifying Ben Harrison as the Nominee for House District 2.”
The Republican Party acknowledged receiving the election contest from Butler last week. Party Chair John Wahl recused himself from hearing the contest because he has served on committees with both candidates, the party said. The party has referred all other questions about the contest to the candidates.
The party heard contests to the primary results in House Districts 28 and 29 because of redistricting errors in Etowah County. The party denied the contests of the two second-place finishers in those races, who called for a new election.
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July 12, 2022 at 09:51PM
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GOP to decide whether to hear election contest over misassigned voters - AL.com
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