Monday, August 19, 2013

Whalum wins his lawsuit and there will be a new election, but does this open new questions

Reverend Kenneth Whalum won his challenge of the August 2012 election that saw him lose his seat on the Unified District Board to Kevin Woods by 108 votes.

Chancellor Kenny Armstrong ruled that there had to be a new election due to problems with the election that made the number of disputed votes larger than the margin of Woods' victory.  From the Daily News article:

“Admittedly, the mistakes here were honest mistakes and non-intentional,” Armstrong concluded. “They, however, bear a direct relationship to the uncertainty of the election outcome if all voters had been allowed to participate and vote in the District 4 race.”

So, as it appears that Woods' election was improper (albeit through no fault of his own), this raises a new question: were the actions he took after September 1, 2012 as a member of that Board valid and binding?  Were there any instances where Woods was the deciding vote in a Board matter and, if so, does this ruling invalidate that vote?

I hope someone familiar with election law can answer this and update in the comments.


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