Final arguments will be heard today as a Senate committee is expected to conclude its hearing into Melanie Sojourner’s challenge of her loss in the District 37 race to Bob Dearing.
Sojourner disputes the outcome of the election, which certified results show Dearing won by a 64-vote margin out of more than 16,000 votes cast throughout the district covering parts of Adams, Amite and Pike counties, and all of Franklin County.
The panel began the hearing arguments in the challenge Wednesday. On Thursday, testimony resumed until just before midnight.
Testimony was expected to continue at 10 this morning, and the committee will make a recommendation to the full Senate.
The panel will decide whether Dearing should remain the winner, or if it will overturn the election results or call a special election.
With testimony running late into the night Thursday, senators on the five-member panel said they’re committed to handing down a resolution as soon as possible. The Senate, virtually ground to a halt with no committee assignments being made until the hearing concludes, has been anxiously awaiting the outcome of the proceedings.
“Final arguments will be heard and these hearings will be over! ... This Resolution will be voted on Monday afternoon when the Senate convenes — probably at 4 p.m.,” Dearing posted on Facebook this morning. “Please continue to keep me in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you all so very, very much!”
In opening arguments and throughout the day Wednesday, the panel alluded testimony from Carl Cupit and Anita Leonard, two election observers whose claims of voting irregularities led to charges being filed against five Franklin County pollworkers and laid the groundwork for Sojourner’s challenge.
Sojourner said election fraud claims filed by the two proves election violations occurred during the Nov. 3 contest.
Based on their allegations, Sojourner has recommended to the panel that the Bude precinct results be thrown out. If the Senate agrees to do that, it’ll swing the election in her favor.
A judge still has to hear the case against the pollworkers.
Cupit and Leonard testified Thursday and Dearing’s attorney, Brad Pigott of Jackson, repeatedly questioned the character of both.
Cupit’s testimony to the panel, however, only concerned the primary and primary runoff elections.
In his affidavit, Cupit said he saw poll workers assist voters behind voting machines and bend the rules for voters.
“This also addresses my feelings about the Democrat pollworkers. In their desire to achieve a desired outcome of an election, they are eager to get or assist people to vote in the manner they desire to achieve that outcome,” Cupit said in his criminal affidavit against the pollworkers.
Leonard testified that she had been observing the elections in the Bude precinct but sheriff’s deputies asked her to move, saying she wasn’t allowed to be where she had been sitting. She said she observed pollworkers improperly assisting voters 81 times and 27 instances in which pollworkers didn’t verify voter IDs with pollbook records.
She accused each pollworker of violating nine elections laws.
Her husband, Harold Leonard is chairman of the Franklin County Republican Party. He also testified for Sojourner Thursday, saying he had in past elections seen irregularities and problems at the Bude precinct and sent his wife there to observe the voting process on Election Day.
John P. Hey also testified on Sojourner’s behalf. Hey assisted Sen. Chris McDaniel, R-Ellisville, with election law analysis in his 2014 election against U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran.
Sojourner was McDaniel’s campaign amanger in that election.
Adams County Election Commissioner Larry Gardner also testified.
All five Franklin County poll managers testified at Thursday’s hearing. They were granted immunity in their pending cases since they have not yet appeared in court to face the misdemeanor charges.
Sojourner, a Republican, was seeking a second term in the Senate. She had defeated Dearing in 2011, unseating the long-serving Democratic senator.
