JP, Commissioner elections unresolved

It is unclear who won the only two contested local races in last Tuesday’s Republican Primary after several reports of voting irregularities.

Uncertified vote tallies show Sarah Hatley getting the most votes for the race for Precinct 1&2 Justice of the Peace with 162, but she did not get more than 50 percent of the total vote and will face the second place vote-getter in a runoff election at some point.

Connie Lane was second in the JP race with 98 votes, Kristen Taylor got 89 votes, and Ashley Savage had 13 votes.

However, County Republican Chair Bill Word County Clerk Vicky Tunnell both confirm that the election results are in doubt. There are multiple reports of people voting in the wrong precincts because of issues with how new precinct lines were entered into the voting system and voter registration issues that stemmed from those errors.

The irregularities may be enough to cast doubt on the vote margin between Lane and Taylor.
Also, the errors could impact the race between Precinct 4 Commissioner Dan Sawyer and challenger Brad Dalton. The uncertified vote tally has Dalton leading by one, 55-54, over Sawyer.

County Judge John Howard said the only possible remedies for a questionable election outcome are a recount or a court challenge. Neither of which can happen until Word certifies the vote, which he will do in public at the Donley County Courthouse Annex this Thursday, March 10, at 11 a.m.

Party and county officials do not expect the vote canvass to change the election totals, but a losing party in the election – Sawyer or Taylor, in this case – could file suit in district court to overturn the election and call for a new election.

“With elections being as close as these were, accuracy is paramount,” Howard said.

The issues with people voting in the wrong precincts is due to time constraints in getting people registered within new precinct lines. The COVID-19 delayed census results by four or five months, which in turn led to the county not getting its new precinct lines drawn until December. That in turn put a severe time constraint on the tax assessor-collector’s office which had to manually move voters into new precincts where the boundaries changed, a complicated process which led to mistakes being made.