Lawrence County Election Board To Conduct Hearing Next Friday To Hear Complaints

( BEDFORD) – The Lawrence County Election Board will be conducting a hearing on Friday, November 15th, 2019 at 3:00 p.m. to be held in the Voter Registration Office at the Lawrence County Courthouse.

According to documents obtained by WBIW, most of the complaints were filed on November 4th, 2019 following the voting that took place at the satellite voting center at Oolitic Town Hall on November 2nd. 2019.

A formal complaint was filed with the Lawrence County Election Board November 7th, 2019 via email, by Leah Gross. The complaint states

that a poll worker was communicating via text with candidate during the voting process. This was witnessed by voters and occurred after the investigator, Mr. Robinson, had warned all candidates not to do so.

Also, she alleges the poll worker was publicly sharing false information on social media that he had learned from the county clerk during the election process.

Mrs. Gross stated in her complaint she believes anyone volunteering in an official capacity, particularly during the election process, should not be sharing gossip or private information whether it be on social media, face to face or via text.

Leah continues to state in the formal complaint that the said poll worker has continuously showed support for the candidate on multiple occasions leading up to the convention and the early voting in Oolitic on Saturday. When a poll worker has so publicly made it clear who he is backing, he should not be sent to participate in those particular elections since he is no longer impartial.

A second formal complaint has been filed by Carol Franklin with the Lawrence County Election Board.  On November 4th, 2019 Carol alleges that while participating in early voting at Oolitic Town Hall she believes a citizen was electioneering.  According to the formal complaint a woman walked into the room where voting was taking place and said: “ Well there is our citizen’s party candidate to vote for.”

The formal complaint stated that she was looking and referring to a man that was also in the room which was a candidate for the Citizen’s Party on the ballot. There were other people in the room voting when this was said, including poll workers.

The third formal complaint filed with the Lawrence County Election Board was filed by Town Council member Dirk Sears who filed a complaint against a candidate on the ballot.

The complaint by Sears alleges that on November 2nd, 2019 the candidate entered the polling/voting area inside Oolitic Town Hall and into the voting booth wearing his campaign slogan MOGA ( Make Oolitic Great Again ). Sears states that the Citizens Party Candidate wore the hat outside the Town Hall while campaigning into the voting area and into the voting booth.

In order for a complaint to be filed, it must be in written form. The Election Board consists of Donald Robertson, ( Democrat Party) John Williams Jr. ( Republican Party) Billie Tumey Lawrence County Clerk’s Office.

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