Hearings scheduled in bond election dispute
Posted on Tuesday, August 19, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/234729/
HOT SPRINGS — Special Judge Russell Rogers of Stuttgart has scheduled hearings for December on a complaint challenging the June 10 special election on the Mid-America Science Museum bond issue.
Rogers was assigned to the case by the Administrative Office of the Courts in Little Rock after all four of Garland County’s circuit judges recused from the case, which asks the court to void the results of the election. City voters Deborah Wemette, Roberta Morningstar, Doug Jones and Barbara Anable filed the complaint shortly after the vote was taken, alleging that the special election was “intentionally scheduled” at a single polling place for the purpose of “disenfranchising minority, elderly, poor, and the disabled voters of Hot Springs.”
The complaint was filed against the Garland County Election Commission, the commissioners, the city of Hot Springs, and the Hot Springs Advertising and Promotion Commission.
The complaint was subsequently amended to add as defendants Mid-America Science Museum Foundation, an independent board that operates the museum, and Mid-America Science Museum.
Rogers held a pretrial conference in Hot Springs on Thursday, to discuss some of the issues and to establish a time frame, as well as determine how many witnesses may be called, and to set a deadline for evidence-gathering, said City Attorney Brian Albright.
Ralph Ohm, the county’s attorney who represents the Garland County Election Commission and its members, said the merits of the case weren’t discussed at the conference. Albright and Ohm said Rogers set a hearing for 1: 30 p. m. Dec. 8 on any motions that may be filed in the case, as well as two days, Dec. 18 and 19, for a nonjury trial.
Albright and Ohm said they expect motions for summary judgment to be filed in the case, which would preclude a trial.
Albright said there is not really a dispute over the material facts in the case — the election was held; there was only one polling place.
If the parties are able to stipulate as to the facts in the case, “the court should be able to rule, as a matter of law, who’s right,” Albright said.
The litigation has already caused a delay in the bond schedule. The bond proposal’s underwriter, Stephens Inc. of Little Rock, said in July that the bonds won’t be sold until the matter is resolved. According to the original schedule, the closing and distribution of the bond proceeds was to occur by Aug. 28.
“Technically, they could be sold, it’s just that the bonding company, with this pending litigation, would be hard-pressed to find any buyers,” Albright said.
The election commissioners, in court filings, contend that the election was “valid, properly conducted, and the results properly certified,” and that the statutory violations cited in the suit apply to general elections and preferential primaries, not special elections.
The issue passed by a vote of 1, 160-560. Including nine undervotes, a total of 1, 729 ballots were cast.
For a comparison, the city says the number of votes cast during the October 2007 citywide special election for a new City Hall, when 17 polling places were used, totaled 1, 804 — a difference of just 75 votes.