OZARK -- A Franklin County circuit judge Friday dismissed a lawsuit brought by legislative candidate Jody Harris, saying she filed it in the wrong court.
Harris, a Republican, filed a lawsuit to throw out the primary results that show her losing to Chad Puryear by seven votes.
The race in House District 25 took place in three counties: Crawford, Franklin and Washington. The lawsuit disputes the count by the Crawford County Election Commission. The case was filed in Franklin County, citing Arkansas Code 7-5-801(b). Harris argued the law says an election contest of a district office may be brought in any county in the district.
The judge disagreed, ruling Harris should have filed in Crawford County where the alleged wrongdoing occurred.
Certified results in all three counties together show Puryear winning 2,211 votes to Harris' 2,204 in the May 24 primary.
Both candidates live on family farms, Puryear near Hindsville and Harris near Fayetteville. This was the first race for both candidates.
The suit disputed the counting of absentee ballots in Crawford County. By law, the suit contended, absentee ballots should have been counted first, but weren't counted until other results were in and until a pro-Harris poll-watcher demanded it. Then they were mishandled while being counted, according to the suit. Those absentee ballots made the difference in the race, the suit contended.
The lawsuit noted that the Election Commission's chairman is Bill Coleman, brother of Rep. Bruce Coleman, R-Mountainburg, who didn't seek reelection in the district and who declared his support of Puryear. Bruce Coleman donated $1,000 to Puryear's campaign, finance records show.
Another member of the three-member Election Commission, Mike Moxley, is Bruce Coleman's son-in-law, according to the suit.
After Harris' poll-watcher demanded the counting of absentee votes, "the defendant election commissioners left the count center, went to another building and later returned," the suit said. "When they returned, Bill Coleman said that the CBEC [the commission] had 'found' 13 absentee ballots that had been cast but not counted. The CBEC then counted the absentee ballots at approximately 11:15 p.m. on election night."
Harris requested a recount, originally set for the next day after the primary.
"Upon arrival, she found that the absentee ballots cast by the voters were not present at the recount," the suit said.
Coleman told Harris those ballots were at his home and copies had been made of those ballots that, because of being folded or other flaws, did not run through the mechanical vote tabulator.
Harris protested, and the recount was delayed until June 1. The commission certified the results, showing Puryear as the victor June 3.
The certification vote was at 1 p.m. when the meeting time had been publicly announced for 1:30 p.m., the suit claimed.