While it’s appearing less likely that a recount or revote will be necessary to decide the contested Ward 7 Hopkinsville City Council Republican primary, Circuit Judge John Atkins on Tuesday postponed his ruling on the matter until a representative of the election software company Tenex is able to testify about what went wrong on Election Day.
Initial results showed Doug 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.
James Adams III represents Wilcox and filed a motion to dismiss a petition for recount filed by Graham last month, contending that if all 36 eligible votes cast at G104 went to Graham, then Wilcox would win the election by 16 votes due to results from other precincts.
Judge Atkins acknowledged that the Wilcox motion appears to be based on good analysis of the numbers, but wants Graham’s attorney, Ben Fletcher, to be able to question a Tenex representative as he has requested before making any ruling.
Fletcher agreed openly that the case is likely a done deal if the numbers prove to be accurate as the parties know them now.
Christian County Clerk Mike Kem testified for nearly 20 minutes and agreed to a request from Fletcher to check the addresses of each person who voted in the E104 and G101 precincts to be sure each one was eligible to vote in the Ward 7 Republican primary.
Another hearing was scheduled for noon on Tuesday of next week.
Listen to the entire hearing below: