Opinion ID: 1100343
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Whether there were violations of Mississippi Election Laws?

Text: ¶ 48. The crux of this case involves Gnemi's allegations concerning the HCDEC's method of handling the District 3 precinct ballot boxes after the first primary election. ¶ 49. Gnemi testified at the special tribunal hearing that when he and Waters appeared at the courthouse for the examination of the ballot boxes on August 22, 2003, instead of being presented with the six metal precinct boxes, safely secured with metal locks, they were presented with two cardboard boxes with the election materials from all six precincts commingled in those two boxes. When Gnemi made inquiry as to why the election materials were not in the metal precinct boxes, Hart informed him that the Election Commission members had emptied the contents of the six precinct metal boxes from District Three into the cardboard boxes because the metal boxes were needed for the second primary election to be held on August 26, 2003. Evidently the election materials were at least identifiable by precinct because Gnemi testified that during the course of the ballot box examination, as the examination of the materials from each precinct was concluded, Hart placed these materials in the appropriate metal precinct box and secured the box with double locks. ¶ 50. Wilbur Redmond, the District Three Election Commissioner for Holmes County, testified that he assisted in the conduct of the August, 2003 primary elections. This fact becomes significant since, absent an express agreement to the contrary, it is the county party executive committee, not the county election commission, which is charged by law with the responsibility of conducting the primary elections. On this point, Redmond testified: Q. Tell us just a little bit about your duties briefly as an Election Commissioner? A. My duties are to get the boxes ready for and conduct election  general election and special election. Pulling the voter rolls. Uh, that's about it.           Q. What department or organization runs primary elections? Who is responsible for that? A. The Holmes County Democratic Executive Committee. Q. To your knowledge, does the Democratic Executive Committee have any kind of written agreement with the Elections Commission regarding the ballot boxes for the primary election? [19] A. Not to my knowledge. I don't know whether they have a written agreement or anything. It's just common knowledge that the Election Commissioners are the ones in charge of the voting boxes. ¶ 51. Redmond testified that on August 17, 2003, he received a telephone call from fellow Election Commissioner Chairman Sam Jesse Horton to come to the court-house the next day to prepare for the second primary elections. The next day Redmond and other election commissioners indeed met at the courthouse to clean out the ballot boxes. The county election commissioners brought the metal precinct ballot boxes from a storage room [20] to another room in the courthouse, at which time each election commissioner proceeded to clean out the ballot boxes from his/her respective supervisor's district. Thus, Redmond handled the six metal ballot boxes from District Three, which included two boxes from Pickens, two boxes from Goodman, and one box each from Ebenezer and Coxburgh. No members of the HCDEC were present during this process. Redmond explained what he did: Q. All right. Tell me what you had to do to go about taking the ballots out of their original boxes? A. We have to break the seal on them and then open them and take out the material that's in them. Q. And what kind of seal is this? A. That's a metal seal. Q. What's the purpose of that metal seal? A. Well, to keep the boxes secure. Q. What happened after you broke the seal on the boxes? A. Well, I was taking the material out, the ballots that had been cast on August the 5th, and other stuff that they need to conduct an election. Q. What would some of that other stuff be? A. Well, pencils, uh, tape, uh, election materials, poll books, and all of that.           Q. What did you do after  where did you take that material  where did you put it? A. Well, I had picked up  since I knew we was going to been (sic) cleaning out the boxes, I had picked up some cardboard boxes from over there at the farmer's market...... ¶ 52. Redmond further testified that he cleaned out the metal precinct boxes and placed all the election materials into the two cardboard boxes he had picked up at the farmer's market. At the special tribunal hearing, he identified these two cardboard boxes, but stated they had more tape on them than what he had placed on them in order to secure the contents. Redmond also testified that he secured the cardboard boxes by pulling the flaps down and securing them with one or two pieces of gray masking tape across the top. Some of the election commissioners then placed their signatures, as witnesses, on the cardboard boxes. Redmond in fact signed written certificates, one for each cardboard box, confirming that the cardboard boxes contained materials which he had removed from the precinct boxes in preparation for the second primary elections. Each certificate was then placed on the respective cardboard box, and Redmond then placed the cardboard boxes back in the storage room at the court-house. Redmond stated that this storage room remained locked most of the time. Redmond confirmed that this method of cleaning out the metal boxes on August 18, 2003, was one which the election commissioners had utilized many times in preparation for a second primary election. Redmond stated that upon returning to the courthouse on August 21, 2003, he learned that Gnemi had requested a recount. Redmond also testified as to what he observed concerning the actions of the circuit clerk and some of the election commissioners: Q. Why were they putting additional tape on the boxes? A. Because when they moved them out of the storage room, those boxes had to be brought out here wherever they were going to have the recount. They had to be turned back over to the Democratic Executive Committee. Q. So what was  A. Well, we had  we couldn't turn them back to the Democratic Executive Committee with the boxes  in the boxes that they had been put in at the beginning. So, they  since they had been moved and put in another box, they had to get them out and put them in this box and put more tape on them. Q. Why did they have to put more tape on them? Is that because  A. Well, my understanding, it was a hazard. It wasn't secured enough in order to be moved around. That's my thoughts about it. Redmond also stated that if the storage room they normally used got filled up, then a basement storage room would be used to store election materials. ¶ 53. Of equally significant import is the testimony of Earline Wright-Hart, the Holmes County Circuit Clerk. Hart testified that she learned the overvote and undervote had indeed been factored into calculating the percentages in the District Three first primary election about a week and a half before the second primary, when she received a call from the Secretary of State's office. A fax transmission later arrived at her office from the Secretary of State's office, addressed to Elma Maxine Smith, the HCDEC chair. This fax transmission contained information as to how to correctly calculate the vote percentages, excluding the over and under votes. Hart passed this information on to Smith who in turn convened a meeting of the HCDEC, which certified Waters as the Democratic nominee for District Three Supervisor. ¶ 54. Hart testified that Gnemi then requested a box examination, and Hart told Gnemi she would arrange for the box examination the next morning by contacting the election commissioners; however, she also stated that since I do not handle the boxes, I didn't know where the boxes were because [t]hat's not in my post. Hart stated that she did not keep the boxes in the clerk's office. In fact, in the late afternoon before the election, according to Hart, the cardboard boxes were moved by a trustee from one room at the courthouse to another room in anticipation of the box examination the next morning. Hart further testified: Q. Because it's not  the Circuit Clerk's office does not run these primary elections. The Democratic Executive Committee runs these elections, correct? A. That's correct. Q. And you don't have a written agreement with the Democratic Election  I mean, Executive Committee to run these elections? A. I've been here 20 years. I've never had to have a written agreement for an election. Q. But you don't have a written agreement with the Democratic Executive Committee to run the election  primary election? A. No, there's no  nothing in the law that says I have to have that. Q. In fact, you mentioned the law, and that's a good point. Regarding the law, it is the Democratic Executive Committee's job to run the primary election and not yours? A. That's right. ¶ 55. Finally, Hart admitted that after the first primary election for District Three supervisor, the HCDEC certified the results and declared a second primary between Waters and Gnemi. Hart also admitted that notwithstanding this HCDEC certification, Waters was later declared to be the Democratic nominee on August 21, just five days before the scheduled second primary, without Waters ever requesting an examination of the ballot boxes and without her ever filing an election contest. In essence, such action by the HCDEC was unilateral. ¶ 56. In fact, Waters candidly admitted that she called both the Mississippi Democratic Party state office and the Secretary of State's office. From these phone conversations, certain information was eventually communicated to both Hart and Smith, the HCDEC chair. Waters testified that there was never any reason for her to request an examination of the ballot boxes or to file an election contest because she was declared to be the Democratic nominee after she initiated the phone calls to the state Democratic Party headquarters and the Secretary of State's office. ¶ 57. There are several statutes which specifically address ballot box security. As such, each statute is premised on eliminating fraudulent or corrupt practices and insuring a just and trustworthy result. Ballot box security is essential to producing an election result in which not only the voters, but the candidates themselves, can be confident. Miss.Code Ann. § 23-15-591 governs the immediate post-election handling of ballot boxes by precinct poll managers. Specifically, section 23-15-591 requires that, [w]hen the count of the votes and the tally thereof have been completed, the managers shall lock and seal the ballot box, having first placed therein all ballots voted, all spoiled ballots and all unused ballots. Miss.Code Ann. § 23-15-911(1) outlines the procedure for maintaining ballot box security both before and after a candidate exercises the right to examine the ballot boxes. Section 23-15-911(1) specifically provides: When the returns for a box and the contents of the ballot box and the conduct of the election thereat have been canvassed and reviewed by the county election commission in the case of general elections or the county executive committee in the case of primary elections, all the contents of the box required to be placed and sealed in the ballot box by the managers shall be replaced therein by the election commission or executive committee, as the case may be, and the box shall be forthwith resealed and delivered to the circuit clerk, who shall safely keep and secure the same against any tampering therewith. At any time within twelve (12) days after the canvass and examination of the box and its contents by the election commission or executive committee, as the case may be, any candidate or his representative authorized in writing by him shall have the right of full examination of said box and its contents upon three (3) days' notice of his application therefor served upon the opposing candidate or candidates, or upon any member of their family over the age of eighteen (18) years, which examination shall be conducted in the presence of the circuit clerk or his deputy who shall be charged with the duty to see that none of the contents of the box are removed from the presence of the clerk or in any way tampered with. Upon the completion of said examination the box shall be resealed with all its contents as theretofore. And if any contest or complaint before the court shall arise over said box, it shall be kept intact and sealed until the court hearing and another ballot box, if necessary, shall be furnished for the precinct involved. Quite often, an aggrieved candidate will demand a recount. Simply put, our election laws do not provide for a candidate seeking a recount by a county party executive committee or a county election commission, as the case may be. Instead section 23-15-911(1) is the mechanism by which an aggrieved candidate may gain information to aid the candidate in determining whether there might be sufficient evidence to file a contest, first with the party executive committee or the election commission. ¶ 58. Finally, Miss.Code Ann. § 23-15-595 states in pertinent part: [The circuit] clerk shall, in the presence of the manager making delivery of the box, place upon the lock of such box a metal seal similar to the seal commonly used in sealing the doors of railroad freight cars. Such seals shall be numbered consecutively to the number of ballot boxes used in the election in the county, and the clerk shall keep in a place separate from such boxes a record of the number of the seal of each separate box in the county. ¶ 59. Although most ballots are now centrally counted at the courthouse via a scanning machine at least similar to the OMR in today's case, as opposed to counting by the poll workers at the precincts with subsequent delivery of the ballot boxes and election materials to the circuit clerk, our election statutes give clear guidance to our elections officials regarding their respective duties. We can state with certainty that in the case sub judice, several violations of election laws occurred concerning the August, 2003 first primary election in Holmes County for District Three Supervisor. First, the Circuit Clerk testified that she did not take possession of the ballot boxes the night of the election when the returning poll managers brought them back from the precincts. In fact, she was adamant that she was not in receipt of any of the boxes that evening. Furthermore, the circuit clerk maintains that she had no knowledge of the boxes' locale up to the time when Gnemi officially served notice on her and exercised his statutory right to examine the ballot boxes on August 21, 2003. Ultimately, the Holmes County Circuit Clerk verified her lack of participation in regards to ballot box security and expressly stated that she lacked any personal knowledge of and was not a witness to the removal of the contents from the six District Three precinct ballot boxes, or their collective dumping into two taped cardboard boxes. ¶ 60. In accordance with section 23-15-911(1), the ballot boxes should have been pristinely maintained and monitored by the circuit clerk who had a duty to safely keep and secure the ballot boxes against any tampering both before and after any box examination. However, as evidenced by the record, section 23-15-911(1) was unquestionably violated when, on August 18, 2003, Wilbur Redmond cleaned out the six District 3 ballot boxes and placed the contents into two cardboard boxes sealing the two boxes with a single piece of tape. ¶ 61. Importantly, the cardboard boxes were never sealed. Statutory mandate prescribes that the ballot boxes be sealed immediately following an election in order to preserve the election-day results. In this case, the boxes, which may have been sealed at one time, were not only left unsealed and accessible, but their contents were commingled with the contents of the other District 3 boxes. When the circuit clerk finally took possession of these cardboard boxes on August 22, she proceeded to add additional tape to their exterior fearing that the security of the ballots was unsatisfactory. Unfortunately, the taping did nothing to cure the inappropriate handling of the ballot boxes prior to that time. ¶ 62. In his ruling, Judge Smith, found these actions to be a clear deviation from our election laws, relying on Allen v. Funchess, 195 Miss. 486, 15 So.2d 343 (1943). In Allen, the contestant in an election contest challenged the integrity of the official vote count because two ballot boxes remained unsealed after the executive committee made its initial box examination, 15 So.2d at 344. The contestant maintained that after the county executive committee's post-primary examination of the ballot boxes, the boxes and their contents thereupon had lost their integrity in point of having any evidentiary value at the time the examination and recount was made on August 31st. Id. This Court further stated in Allen that [h]ad these boxes been sealed, as required by the statute, it is entirely probable that this unfortunate controversy would never have proceeded to the course of an expensive litigation with its residue of doubts which will inevitably linger and rankle. Id. ¶ 63. Similarly, in the case at bar, the evidentiary value of the sealed ballot boxes was lost the moment the seal was broken on the ballot boxes. Moreover, like Allen, the contents were exposed and made available for fraudulent practices. ¶ 64. In sum, we are constrained as a matter of law, based on the record before us, to find that there were numerous violations of our election laws. First of all, the Holmes County Election Commission was in complete control of the ballot boxes in the August 5, 2003, Democratic primary election, even though our law requires such ballot box control to be maintained by the county executive committee in the case of primary elections. See Miss.Code Ann. § 23-15-911. Such relinquishment of statutory responsibility by the Holmes County Democratic Executive Committee could have only been legally accomplished via a written agreement with the Holmes County Election Commission. Miss.Code Ann. § 23-15-266 (Rev.2001) states: A county or municipal executive committee shall be eligible to enter into written agreements with a circuit or municipal clerk or a county or municipal election commission as provided for in Sections 23-15-239(2), 23-15-265(2), 23-15-267(4), 23-15-333(4), 23-15-335(2) or XX-XX-XXX(2), only if the political party with which such county or municipal executive committee is affiliated: (a) Has cast for its candidate for Governor in the last two (2) gubernatorial elections ten percent (10%) of the total vote cast for governor; or (b) Has cast for its candidate for Governor in three (3) of the last five (5) gubernatorial elections twenty-five percent (25%) of the total vote cast for Governor. The record is devoid of any evidence of a written agreement between the HCDEC and the election commission wherein the HCDEC has divested itself of its statutory duties in the conduct of Democratic primary elections. In fact, both District Three Election Commissioner Wilbur Redmond and Circuit Clerk Earline Wright-Hart admitted the non-existence of a written agreement. Thus, pursuant to Miss. Code Ann. § 23-15-267(3), the HCDEC, not the county election commission, should have taken control of the ballot boxes and delivered them to the circuit clerk. Because of this active involvement by the Holmes County Election Commissioners in the August 5, 2003, first Democratic primary, Judge Smith was unable to convene the special tribunal as required under the provisions of Miss.Code Ann. § 23-15-931. Pursuant to this statute, upon appointment of a chancellor or circuit judge by the Chief Justice pursuant to Miss.Code Ann. § 23-15-929, the specially appointed judge or chancellor is to convene the special tribunal consisting of the judge and the five county election commissioners, who presumably are unbiased and disinterested persons, having no involvement in the conduct of the primary election being contested. Pursuant to section 23-15-931, the county election commissioners sit with the judge or chancellor as advisors or assistants in the trial and determination of the facts. Further, Miss.Code Ann. § 23-15-933 provides, inter alia, that if as many as three of the five county election commissioners are in attendance at the hearing before the special tribunal, and if the findings of fact by the special tribunal are concurred in by all the county election commissioners in attendance, such findings of fact are not subject to appellate review. However, inasmuch as the actions of the county election commissioners are at the crux of today's election contest, Judge Smith was unable to utilize their services as members of the special tribunal. However, we have held that the absence of the election commissioners at a primary election contest before the specially appointed judge is not error under certain circumstances. See Hatcher v. Fleeman, 617 So.2d 634, 638 (Miss.1993). In fact, Miss. Code Ann. § 23-15-935 (Rev.2001) gives the duly appointed judge or chancellor the express authority to proceed to a hearing without the county election commissioners, under certain circumstances. However, what was lost, inter alia, because of the inability of the election commissioners to serve as members of the special tribunal in today's case, was expedited review by this Court without a record if all the election commissioners had agreed with the special tribunal's findings of fact. ¶ 65. Another critical violation is the circuit clerk's relinquishing her statutorily mandated duties to take charge of the ballot boxes after the completion of the OMR counting process which was completed in the early morning hours of August 6, 2003. See Miss.Code Ann. §§ 23-15-267(3), -911(1). Instead the ballot boxes were kept in various storage rooms at the courthouse, and after the county election commissioners improperly dumped the contents of the six precinct ballot boxes from District Three into two non-secured cardboard boxes from the farmer's market, a trustee (which we presume to be a jail trusty), among other persons, moved these cardboxes around from one room to another at the courthouse. ¶ 66. Likewise, of significant import in today's case is that, notwithstanding the fact that the provisions of Miss.Code Ann. § 23-15-911(1) allow an aggrieved candidate to examine the ballot boxes within twelve (12) days after the canvass and examination of the boxes and contents by the county executive committee, the county election commissioners, only six days after the HCDEC certification of the first primary elections, removed the contents of the six District Three ballot boxes and placed them into non-secured cardboard boxes. This action by the county election commissioners destroyed the opportunity for not only Gnemi, but any candidate for a District Three office, or a county-wide office, in the August 5th primary, to exercise his or her statutory right to examine the ballot boxes pursuant to Miss.Code Ann. § 23-15-911(1). As so noted by Judge Smith in his bench opinion and his written order, because of these blatant violations of various statutes, the integrity of any ballot box examination was compromised because of the manner in which these six precinct ballot boxes were handled from the time of the first primary election until Gnemi attempted an examination. ¶ 67. Waters understandably cites Riley v. Clayton, 441 So.2d 1322 (Miss.1983), in an effort to convince us that the use of cardboard boxes to store ballots was sufficient to save today's case. However, Riley is unequivocally factually dissimilar to the case sub judice. In Riley, a primary election contest in the chancery clerk's race, the Lee County circuit clerk had for some time followed the practice of storing absentee ballots in large brown precinct envelopes. [21] However, unlike today's case, in Riley, the ballots which were placed in the envelopes were kept at all times in a secured location in the circuit clerk's office, which was locked overnight. ¶ 68. Thus, for these reasons, we find that the Holmes County election officials committed numerous violations of the election laws.