By Candice Ludlow
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkno/local-wkno-920390.mp3
Memphis, TN – Ten losing candidates filed a lawsuit against the Shelby County Election Commission Tuesday. They're contesting the results of the August general election where Republicans won many county seats. Candice Ludlow reports that prior to filing the suit, the Democrats investigated the election.
Democrat Regina Newman compared the number votes cast to the number of voters. She found a big problem.
"Without explanation the statement of votes cast for the election shows almost 183-thousand voters. That's 6,800 more votes than we had persons at the polls," Newman said.
Newman lost the race for Shelby County Trustee to David Lenoir by 4,548 votes. She is both an attorney and a plaintiff in the case.
"The suit alleges widespread irregularities, improprieties, discrepancies and voting problems so significant to the August election and to have caused the election results to be incurably uncertain," Newman said.
Newman is making reference to errors in provisional ballots, early voting turnout inconsistencies, missing vote batches (which the plaintiffs say may contain between 6,000 and 18,000 votes), vote flipping by the voting machines and unsecured election equipment.
On August 5th, some voters were told they had already voted when they had not. The Election Commission said this confusion was caused by their IT Director, who inadvertently loaded May early voting data into the Electronic Poll Books for August.
Democrat Shep Wilbun is another plaintiff. He lost his race for Juvenile Court Clerk. Wilbun was shocked to learn that there's a manual override on the central tabulator that counts the votes. Wilbun used to be on the Election Commission and he had no idea there was such a thing.
"The only purpose for a manual override would be to alter, change or modify the results that come into the central tabulator. That in and of itself causes this whole election, perhaps more elections, to be questioned because we don't know what the manual override has been used for, is being used for or how it could be used to effect the outcome of an election," Wilbun said.
The lawsuit requests the court to step in and monitor the November 2nd election and all pre-election prep.
John Ryder thinks that request is nuts. He is an attorney for the election commission. He says, "There's no precedent for that under Tennessee law and that's a ridiculous request."
Ryder says there are checks in place to ensure elections are fair.
"The Election Commission is a bipartisan board composed of three Republicans and two Democrats," Ryder explains. "The Democrats actively participate and exercise oversight of the functions of the board. In fact, the vote to certify this election was unanimous by all five of the commissioners."
He also points out that the Secretary of State's office oversees the commission, and every polling place must have an equal number of Democratic and Republican staffers.
In addition to the Democrats' investigation, three other agencies are looking into the election commission's handling of the August 5th election. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation will turn over their results to District Attorney Bill Gibbons, who will then decide whether there's anything criminal to prosecute. The Department of Justice is reviewing Congressman Steve Cohen's request for a federal inquiry. And the Secretary of State's office is also conducting an investigation.