Tasha Dillon is challenging the results of the Aug. 4 Democratic primary that declared her opponent David Myers the winner in the House District 98 contest.
The challenge comes after an investigation of ballot boxes conducted Monday on Dillon’s behalf by Pete Perry, who also is the Hinds County Republican Party chairman.
Dillon did not return calls seeking comment Monday or this morning.
Monday was the deadline to review ballot boxes or contest the results of the primary.
Myers won re-election to a fifth term by defeating Dillon 2,001 (52 percent) to 1,858, according to certified election results. There were no other candidates seeking the office.
Perry said that due to the limited timeframe to conduct the review, his investigation wasn’t as thorough as it needed to be. Still, Dillon ultimately made the decision to challenge the election, he said.
“It makes better sense to challenge than not challenge because a challenge can always be amended or withdrawn. If you fail to issue a challenge, you have no recourse,” Pike County Election Commissioner Trudy Berger said.
The challenge centered on voting in Pike County, which Myers carried during the primary. Dillon won Walthall County, the only other county in the district.
Dillon and Perry had said waiting until Monday to review ballot boxes from19 of the county’s 25 voting precincts would amount to a “sabotage” of her efforts to contest the race.
State law said that Myers had to have three days’ noticed of a ballot box review, and he was served with notice at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 18.
But in a letter to Dillon last week, Pike County Board of Supervisors attorney Wayne Dowdy said he sought an opinion from Attorney General Jim Hood’s office, which directed Pike County Circuit Clerk Roger Graves to set the examination for 9 a.m. Monday.
The AG’s opinion did not give a time to end the review, however.
The official deadline to challenge the election was 5 p.m. Monday, leading Perry to question the AG’s decision.
“I’m very upset about the decision. It’s not the law; it was an edict,” he said. “Tasha should have been given the reins for a full examination on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. That’s the law.”
Myers, Graves, Berger and election commissioner Robert Accardo and deputy clerk Brenda Williams were in attendance for the review.
Myers, who arrived just before 9 a.m., originally requested Graves find out how long Dillon’s representation had to show up after 9 o’clock came with no one representing Dillon.
In Perry’s absence, Ed Smith with the Pike County Democratic Executive Committee first arrived, then Dillon’s sister Keysha Green.
Both were authorized in writing by Dillon to be there. However, when Green arrived 10 minutes after 9, Smith declared he wasn’t legally allowed to be at the center.
“I’m on the Democratic executive board. I can’t be here,” he said.
“You’re on the Democratic board?” Myers asked Smith.
“Yes,” Smith said.
“Guess that kind of shows you who they support,” Myers told everyone the room.
Perry arrived at Pike County Election Central half an hour after 9 a.m., leaving Myers with the impression the first two representatives were stalling.
Perry spent the next 10 hours searching through ballot boxes, with Myers staring him down.
Perry said he will now attempt to draw conclusions from the information he gathered.
“There are mistakes in every election. No election is perfect. We need to take into account those mistakes, see if they had a significant enough effect on the results and look at other factors,” Perry said.
By other factors, Perry said he is particularly interested in the New Hope and Martin Luther King Center precincts, where he had been informed campaign violations had occurred.
“I’ve heard from multiple witnesses there was some kind of voter intimidation going on, threats and intimidation,” Perry said. “(Myer’s) campaign supporters were in places they shouldn’t be, inside and outside the polling place. There were people there that weren’t supposed to be there. They were told to stop but then came back. Those are some of the things we are looking into.”
The number of split precincts could also have a significant impact on what Perry concludes, he said. There were 11 split precincts in the district.
“The problem with split precincts is that the poll worker has to make sure the right voter gets the right ballot. It’s a very difficult process to train the worker to do this, and on such a busy day as election day, mistakes happen. You have to make sure the correct ballot is given. Often, that doesn’t happen,” he said.
Now, the state Democratic party will have 10 days to review Dillon’s request to challenge the race, then hold a hearing to determine whether it can proceed.
Then either side will have the option to file arguments for or against the challenge in court, Perry said.
