Evelyn Gomez and Kristi Stahr, the head of the Pulaski County Election Commission, on Thursday filed paperwork to appeal written reprimands issued by the state Board of Election Commissioners.
Stahr and Gomez, Republican appointees to the county commission, are petitioning Circuit Judge Patti James to overturn the state board's findings that the county commission was responsible for several election law violations that occurred during the 2020 election.
Gomez has since left the board as has the third member, Joshua Price, a Democrat now running for secretary of state.
Represented by attorneys Dan Hancock and Sylvester Smith, Stahr and Gomez claim, among other things, there is insufficient evidence that they did anything wrong, the state commission exceeded its authority in rebuking them and it did not follow proper procedure when it made its findings last month.
The GOP-controlled state board found grounds for four violations: the inclusion of 327 disqualified ballots in the total count, failure to certify accurate results, failure to maintain proper ballot security and failure to timely and accurately report unofficial election results that included an account of outstanding ballots.