Hembree v. City of Stilwell
| Decision Date | 17 July 1979 |
| Docket Number | No. 53631,53631 |
| Citation | 597 P.2d 1218,1979 OK 109 |
| Parties | Watie HEMBREE, Petitioner, v. The CITY OF STILWELL, a Municipal Corporation, and its officers consisting of Harold Moten, Mayor, and Clinton Fixin, James Collins, Norman Isaacs, Larry Don O'Neal and Nancy Garrett, Council Members, and County Election Board of Adair County, Oklahoma consisting of Patricia Carrington, Chairman, Doyle Guthrie, Vice-Chairman and David Benham, Secretary, and William H. Bliss, District Judge of the 15th Judicial District, State of Oklahoma, Respondents. |
| Court | Oklahoma Supreme Court |
Petitioner, an unsuccessful candidate for the office of City Councilman in Ward No. 3, City of Stilwell, Oklahoma, instituted a proceeding to contest the correctness of the announced election results based on numerous irregularities. The Judge, Hon. William H. Bliss, ruled that all irregularities lacked vitiating quality and the winning candidate was determinable with "mathematical certainty". The unsuccessful candidate thereafter sought to invoke our original jurisdiction for issuance of a prerogative writ (mandamus/prohibition) to procure from this court a decision either invalidating the election or declaring that the winning candidate may not be determined with mathematical certainty.
JURISDICTION ASSUMED AND WRIT GRANTED.
David Harris, Stilwell, for petitioner.
Lloyd E. Cole, Jr., Stilwell, for respondents.
This is an aftermath of a district court election contest under 26 O.S.Supp.1978 § 8-120. At issue before us is the correctness of announced election results in the April 3, 1979 race for Ward 3 councilman in Stilwell between incumbent Nancy Garrett and challenger Watie Hembree. Hembree (petitioner), for whom 45 votes were officially counted, lost to Garrett whose announced vote was 48. The judge who heard the contest ruled that Garrett was entitled to a certificate of election and this original proceeding followed.
Hembree's challenge here rests on two principal complaints:
1. A "cluster" of irregularities which occurred Before the election. These stemmed from the city officialdom's failure to comply with certain statutes that require (a) a city council's resolution calling an election (26 O.S.Supp.1978 § 13-102) (b) providing a current city map for the use of the county election board (26 O.S.Supp.1978 § 13-107) and (c) furnishing a copy of the city charter to the election board (26 O.S.Supp.1978 § 13-109);
2. The number of illegal votes cast and counted (in the announced results) make it impossible to identify the winning candidate with the statutorily-mandated gauge of "mathematical certainty" (26 O.S.Supp.1978 §§ 8-120(2) and 8-122).
Petitioner's complaint, so far as it concerns the city officials' want of compliance with the outlined pre-election formalities, does not entitle him to any relief. When failure to meet statutory formalities is invoked After the balloting takes place, the results of an election will not be invalidated absent proof of fraud or corruption so pervasive as to taint the entire process. Neither the record before us nor the briefs give any intimation of vitiating defects. We therefore hold that want of compliance by the city officials with the enumerated pre-election formalities can form no basis for invalidating the contest here under consideration. Gardner v. Scott, 205 Okl. 333, 237 P.2d 863, 866 (1951); State v. Long, 178 Okl. 409, 63 P.2d 60, 61-63 (1936).
Passing to petitioner's other complaint i. e., that the winner may not be determined with mathematical certainty, as required by our statutory law, we observe that the burden was cast on him to establish the presence of illegal votes in sufficient number to eliminate his opponent's margin of Three. He clearly sustained this burden when he produced five persons who...
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