Judge Dismisses Election Lawsuit

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The election court battle is over. Thursday morning a Chancery Court judge threw out a lawsuit alleging fraud and other wrongdoing in the August 5th Election. The trial began Wednesday with the plaintiffs’ part of the case. But by Thursday morning it was over with the judge ready to rule.

Thursday's ruling throwing out a lawsuit filed over mistakes made during the August 5th Election came early. The ten or so plaintiffs put on their case the day before, but Chancery Court Judge Arnold Goldin didn't wait to call the defendants.

"He was able to determine there was no way they'd ever be able to prove in court that the results of the August 5th Shelby County Election were incurably uncertain, the level it needed to rise to by state law," said Bill Giannini, Shelby County Election Commission Chairman.

The lawsuit was filed by democratic candidates against the Shelby County Election Commission, saying election results were skewed by widespread irregularities. They claimed the technical errors of loading data from the May election lead to thousands of voters being turned away in August.

"The plaintiffs were unable to produce in court, did not produce in court a single voter who said they had been turned away at the polls," Giannini said.

In his decision Goldin said depositions from election officials, and other civil-service employees with decades experience, disproved the plaintiffs case, showing him there was no "conspiracy" to tamper with the election.

"Whether there was criminal intent behind this or gross negligence there was something out of sorts here and the people feel it, the people know it," said Van Turner, Chairman of the Shelby County Democratic Party.

Turner said they're disappointed, but not yet defeated.

According to Turner, "There's a feeling among plaintiffs, at least some, that they want to pursue this to the Court of Appeals and perhaps go to Federal Court as well."

Giannini chalked up what happened to a problem uploading data, which he called human error. He said with the lawsuit behind them, they'll now take a look at specific areas they need to address to make sure there's not a second time around.

While the Election Commission works on its post-election assessment, Turner said they'll likely be positioning themselves for an appeal and some sort of oversight for the commission.