Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

JP Contests Election Results

Bill Newton, current justice of the peace in district 7, is contesting the outcome of the June 11 runoff.

Newton lost the runoff 325-279 to John "J.B." Howard.

However, according to Karen Wieman, with the Clark County Election Commission, Howard's sister and husband worked the polls in the JoAnn community.

Newton, she said, has a problem with the fact relatives of his opponent were working the polls during the two elections. He has announced plans to sue the commission and try to get the outcome reversed.

In the meantime, though, the commission met Friday, June 14, and certified the results of the election.

But, she said, Newton did not protest the vote in the May 21 primary, which forced the runoff between he and Howard.

In fact, until someone told him about Howard's sister and brother-in-law, who is a pastor, there appeared to be no problems with the election.

During Friday night's meeting, Newton was told he has 20 days to file suit in circuit court and challenge the election results.

Newton said he neither takes the local newspaper, nor goes to the Clark County Courthouse. He said the commission should send candidates a list of poll workers before elections.

His only concern, Newton told those gathered, is with the law being violated.

"The commission supports his right to sue," Wieman said, "but I wish we could avoid this. It's senseless and unfortunate."

The commissioner who selected the poll workers saw no problem with Howard's sister and brother-in-law working the polls. "They did nothing wrong," Wieman said of the two, "and they're tainted by this.

"It's hard enough to get poll workers without these problems."

However, something good has came out of this mess, she said. The commissioner in the JoAnn area said there have been several people come up to her and volunteer to work the polls in the future.

In other elections, Judy Beth Hutcherson won the county treasurer's race with a 1,630-1,417 win over Glenda Watson.

For U.S. Senate, Winston Bryant almost doubled Lu Hardin 2,006-1056.

There will be a special election later this summer to find a replacement for the late Gerald Hendrix, who was killed recently in a horseback riding incident. This election, however, will not affect Gurdon voters.

Otherwise, the only elections scheduled in Clark County will be the September school elections and the November General Election.

Wieman said it will probably take her two full months to get ready for the general election.