Edgewood has such a paper and election notices were not published in it, Stearley alleges in the suit. Stearley also contends that the voting precincts used during the election were consolidated illegally. The precincts were joined for the purpose of the election when the council passed an election resolution on Dec. 1. Stearley was at that Dec. 1 meeting and voted for the resolution. He also alleges the town broke state law by only having one election judge and two precinct board members.
State law requires each precinct board to have at least three members and three judges.
Coppler said the suit has little merit and will cost the town money and time. Based on trial law, he said, Stearley would have to prove that any election violations resulted in votes being cast improperly and that some votes either were given to Keaty or taken from Stearley. The suit makes no such allegations and Coppler said he was confident the March 7 election would stand. Ronald VanAmberg, Stearley's attorney, said state law backs up the allegations.