There will be another hearing Tuesday afternoon in Christian Circuit Court regarding the contested Ward 7 Republican primary for Hopkinsville city council and Doug Wilcox is asking for the judge to proclaim him the winner.
Initial results showed Wilcox defeating Mark Graham by a single vote, but the Christian County Clerk’s Office later said 109 voters in Ward 8 had voted in the Ward 7 race due to a technical issue with how Tenex programmed software in tablets used by poll workers at the G104 precinct.
Discussions were held in the courtroom of Judge John Atkins Wednesday and no decisions were made on any potential re-votes or recounts.
Judge Atkins scheduled what he called an omnibus hearing for Tuesday of next week at 2 p.m., when he will hear further motions and arguments.
One of those motions is one from Wilcox’s attorney—James Adams—to dismiss a petition for a manual recount filed by Graham three days after the primary.
Adams writes in his motion that if you remove the 109 ineligible votes at G104 and assume Graham got the remaining 36, then Wilcox would still win by 16 votes based on results from E104 and G101.
The motion asserts that the 109 illegal votes did not affect the outcome and that Graham was actually the beneficiary of those votes.
Adams asks Judge Atkins to dismiss the petition for recount and confirm Wilcox as the duly elected candidate.
Judge Atkins granted a request from the Christian County Attorney’s Office to redact the names on a list of eligible voters who cast votes in the G104 precinct, with no objection from any parties involved.
He also ordered Sheriff Tyler DeArmond and at least two members of the Board of Elections to be present for any inspection of the voting equipment while the matter is pending.
Graham’s attorney, Ben Fletcher, will have filed his own response and argument against dismissing the petition for a recount by the time the parties reconvene Tuesday.