By Patricia A. Scheyer
NKyTribune reporter
At the end of January, Boone County Circuit Judge Richard Brueggemann handed down a judgment on the election debacle in the city of Union by throwing out the November results altogether.
The Judge said that Mayor Larry Solomon should appoint the remaining commissioners. Solomon then surprised everyone by choosing only one of the commissioner candidates, John Mefford, to be a commissioner. He did not choose Eric Dulaney or Brian Garner, who were the second and third top vote getters after Mefford.
Solomon and Mefford then chose Doug Bine, who was a candidate but did not win, and the three commissioners then chose George Eldridge, who wasn’t even on the ballot.
Slowly the backlash is unfolding.
Thursday the Boone County Democrat Democrats put out a statement condemning the commissioner appointments as a ‘direct attack on voter rights.’
“The Boone County Democratic Party strongly condemns the recent appointment of Union City Commissioners, a brazen act of voter suppression that disregards the will of the people and undermines the fundamental principles of free and fair elections,” the statement read.
Solomon was not happy that the decision was thrown into his lap, but he rose to the occasion, and dutifully made his decisions, based first on what he thought was the best for the city, and secondly to reduce the conflict that has been present in the commission meetings, and to promote harmony and efficiency.
His actions seemed not to achieve those objectives.
Brian Garner stated at the meeting that he didn’t like politics being played with his hometown, and that prompted the Boone County Democratic party to step up and issue a condemnation.
On November 5th last year, two precincts in Union ran out of ballots. County Clerk Justin Crigler’s office sent down 800 ballots. Those ballots, however, were distributed to people who did and did not live in the city, and some voted weren’t eligible to vote for the city races.
All 800 ballots were voted.
By 11:30 a.m., the clerk’s office realized there was a mistake and voting machines were taken out of service and others put in, a process that took an hour. During that hour, any residents who wanted to vote could not, resulting in the disenfranchisement of any residents who wanted to vote in those two precincts. These voters were added to the ones who lived in the city and requested ballots, but didn’t get them.
In the case that Doug Bine filed a few days after election day, he contended that the results of the election for the commissioners needed to be thrown out, and he said there were three ways to remedy the situation; first, the county could order a special, city wide election, or second, they could order a special election only for precincts one and four, or 3rd, the county could order the mayor to make the appointments for the commissioners.
Due to the fact that the court determined that over 20 percent of all the votes cast were tainted, the election was declared void.
Brian Garner did not agree, arguing that less than 20 percent were tainted. Judge Brueggemann decided that it was impossible to ‘fairly discern a winner,’ so the election was declared void.
Crigler and the judge agreed that the only remedy for the voided election is to allow the sole remaining member of the legislative body to appoint the remaining members, as per KRS 83A.040(5). This also provides the authority for the mayor to appoint the commission members, and agrees with section 152 of the Kentucky constitution.
The Democratic party statement calls this a “power grab,” and notes that the Commission is responsible for setting local tax rates and determining how taxpayer dollars are spent. They state that people are now being taxed without representation.
They contend that though they agreed the election should be voided, there should be a special election, and they are calling for immediate action to restore electoral integrity.
“We urge state and local officials to correct this undemocratic abuse of power, and take swift action to prevent further erosion of voter rights in our community,” the demands state in the letter.
It’s called an election not an appointment. Make it an election. This is ridiculous