Judge orders new commissioner election

A new election has been ordered in the race for Donley County Commissioner Precinct 4 following voting issues in the March 1 Republican Primary.

Incumbent Commissioner Dan Sawyer and challenger Brad Dalton will now face off again on the same ballot as the Republican Runoff Election on May 24.

Presiding for the 100th Judicial District Court, Judge John Board held the hearing and issued the order in the case, which was assigned to him by Judge Ana Estevez of Amarillo. District Judge Stuart Messer had to recuse himself as the local judge in the matter.

In the original election, Dalton beat Sawyer by one vote, 55-54, to win the Republican nomination. The election was under a cloud, however, due to multiple reports of people in Donley County 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.

Under his only legal recourse, Sawyer sued Dalton to have the election set aside. In his formal response to the suit, Dalton agreed with Sawyer that the election should be thrown out.

In a statement to the Enterprise last week, Dalton called having a new election “only fair” and said, “All elections should be fair and equal in the eyes of the people and the law.”

Judge Board effectively declared the March 1 election void and ordered the new election for May 24. All persons who are eligible to vote in the Republican runoff in Precinct 4 can vote in the new election.

The runoff ballot will also feature the top two candidates for Precinct 1&2 Justice of the Peace, Sarah Hatley and Connie Lane.

Donley County Tax Assessor/Collector Kristy Christopher said her office is working hard to remedy the voting registration errors that led to the confusion. Armed with the latest maps from the Panhandle Regional Planning Commission, Christopher said Monday that she is working very closely with the Texas Secretary of State’s office to go precinct line by precinct line to make sure all voters are registered in the proper precinct.
Christopher expects that process to be completed by early next week with new voter registration cards to be sent out soon after that, possibly as soon as the following week.