Opinion ID: 1670906
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Suit to be Declared the Winner

Text: The requirements of a complaint seeking to have an election contestant declared the properly elected party were set out in Shoaf v. Bringle, 192 Tenn. 695, 241 S.W.2d 832 (1951), as follows: When we consider this case from the aspect that it was a valid election and that the petitioner, contestant, had received more votes than the contestee, it becomes necessary for the contestant to show on the face of his petition or complaint that the illegal votes cast should be thrown out and that when this is done that the votes that he received plus the legal votes of which he claims to have been deprived was greater than that of the contest. In making these allegations it [is] necessary that the contestant specifically point out each and every vote that was fraudulently or illegally cast on behalf of the contestant and against him and that the total of these votes when taken from the contestee and added to him would give him a majority. Shoaf, 241 S.W.2d at 833. See also Blackwood v. Hollingsworth, 195 Tenn. 427, 260 S.W.2d 164, 166 (1953), in which this Court, relying on Shoaf v. Bringle , noted that to sustain a claim of this sort, the contestant must specifically point out the alleged illegal votes cast for the contestee. In this case, Forbes has failed to make the allegations necessary to support a claim that she should be declared the winner. She states in her complaint only that the wholesale disregard of the election laws of the State have resulted in irregularities which have rendered at least 300 absentee ballots in Hickman County and 561 absentee ballots in Williamson County illegal and that but for said irregularities that Forbes, and not the incumbent (Bell), is the winner. Nowhere in the complaint or amended complaint, however, is there any indication of the total number of votes which Forbes and Bell received from all four counties in the district. Because Forbes has not provided these figures, we have no way of determining whether the number of allegedly illegal votes equals or exceeds the margin of Bell's declared victory. This omission alone is fatal to Forbes's claim that she should be declared the duly elected winner. Additionally, as noted above, to be declared the winner, an election contestant must specifically point out each and every vote that was fraudulently or illegally cast on behalf of the contestee and against [the contestant]. Shoaf 241 S.W.2d at 833. Forbes has failed to identify any allegedly illegal votes counted for Bell and against her. Without this information, we simply have no basis upon which to declare Forbes the duly elected candidate. We must therefore conclude, as to this ground for relief, that the trial court was correct in dismissing the complaint for failure to state a cause of action.