Opinion ID: 1691288
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The 25 Bessemer Division affidavit envelopes with ballots enclosed

Text: The parties represent to this Court, and our review of the evidence confirms, that 25 absentee-ballot envelopes from the Bessemer Division of Jefferson County, which had been opened at some point before July 7-8, are included in the box labelled Court's exhibit 2. The ballots, however, were still in envelopes inside the affidavit envelopes. The parties do not dispute that these ballots were not counted by election officials. The presence of these 25 absentee envelopes and ballots in Exhibit 2 is consistent with the testimony of Diane Grubbs, the absentee-ballot manager for the Bessemer Division, who testified, by deposition, that 25 absentee ballots were set aside on election night and were not counted because the voters had failed to fill out their affidavit forms properly. The presence of these 25 absentee ballots is also consistent with what the parties found when they examined the evidence during the July 7-8 hearing, because the transcript reveals that they also found that there were 25 of these affidavit envelopes and that they had previously been opened. This Court examined the affidavit envelopes one-by-one, and we conclude that election officials were correct with regard to all but two of the 25 ballots when they concluded that the ballots' affidavits did not comply with statutory requirements and that the ballots were therefore not due to be counted. Section 17-10-10, Ala.Code 1975, provides: No poll worker or other election official shall open an affidavit envelope if the affidavit printed thereon is unsigned by the voter (and unmarked), and no ballot envelope or ballot therein may be removed or counted. No poll worker or other election official shall open an affidavit envelope if the voter's affidavit signature (or mark) is not witnessed by the signatures of two witnesses or a notary public (or other officer authorized to acknowledge oaths) and no ballot envelope or ballot therein may be removed or counted. With regard to 23 of the 25 affidavit envelopes and ballots, as mentioned above, we conclude that election officials complied with the requirements of § 17-10-10. We conclude that 2 of the 25 affidavit envelopes, however, complied with all applicable provisions of law. Accordingly, the ballots contained within those two affidavit envelopes should have been counted. Those ballots showed votes for Hale. Although the parties have not made these 25 ballots an issue on this appeal, we elected to examine them, in an effort to try to determine how the trial judge concluded that Hale was the winner of the election. At the July 8, 1999, remand hearing, there was a question as to whether 25 opened affidavit envelopes, from the Bessemer Division, with ballots in them, should be examined. The contestee demanded that they be examined; the contestants objected. The trial judge stated that he had examined that stack and added I don't recall opening these ballots, but I don't recall rejecting anything. If it was there, I felt like I had a duty to look at it. And, as far as me having a specific recollection about opening these and looking at them, I don't. But I didn't cull anything else, I looked at everything. Therefore, this Court has looked at these 25 ballots, and we have determined that 23 of them should not have been counted, because they failed to comply with statutory requirements for witnessing or notarization. All 25 of these ballots contained votes for sheriff. Adding these 25 ballots to the 108 votes for sheriff out of 115 on-site Birmingham Division absentee ballots, see section IV, infra, yields a total of 133 votes for sheriff, which is the total that the trial judge stated at the remand hearing he had determined when he counted the ballots in his review of the evidence. [2] Based on the evidence before us, and in light of the trial judge's statement that he counted every single uncounted ballot and added the totals to Woodward and Hale, we can conclude only that the trial judge opened these affidavit envelopes and that he included these ballots in his calculations. However, as noted above, 23 of those ballots were not due to be counted. Two were due to be counted as votes for Hale. That conclusion, coupled with the conclusions we reach below, supports our conclusion that the trial judge's statement that Hale still received the majority of votes is not supported by the evidence.