Dougherty school board vacancy, election lawsuit leave voters facing uncertainty

Melissa Strother announced she is leaving the Dougherty County School Board after moving outside District 4. Adam Inyang, her opponent in the May Democratic primary, is challenging the election results in court. Staff Photo: Kathryn Crockett

ALBANY — Dougherty County School Board members acknowledged Thursday that they must address a District 4 vacancy after Melissa Strother resigned. Meanwhile, a court challenge to the May primary alleges scanner malfunctions, mishandled ballots and incomplete election records.

The board said Strother submitted her resignation letter Wednesday. Members did not comment further.

Strother announced Monday that an unexpected change in her family’s residential plans had led to their move outside the district. Her statement did not say when the move took place.

Her name remains the only one on the Nov. 3 ballot for the school board seat she narrowly won in the Democratic primary. Early voting continues through Friday.

In an interview Wednesday, Dougherty County Elections Supervisor Ginger Nickerson said her office had no knowledge of Strother’s eligibility changes. 

“I haven’t received any notice of the resignation, so I can’t speak on that,” Nickerson said. Asked whether anything formal had been filed, she said, “Well, not with our office. Let me say that.”

Nickerson said any special election would start with a request from the school board. The board’s attorney would present that request to the county’s five-member Board of Elections, which would call the election, set a date and arrange candidate qualifying.

“But that would have to come from the board of education,” Nickerson said.

She said a replacement election could not be held Nov. 3.

“That would be on a different date,” Nickerson said. “November has already gone. There’s nothing we can do in November.”

State law points the same way. Strother announced her departure eight days before the general election.

Georgia law bars filling a party nomination when the nominee withdraws fewer than 60 days before an election. When a withdrawal leaves no candidate for an office on the ballot, the law calls for a special primary and a special election.

A separate provision lets a primary runner-up who received at least 40% of the vote replace a nominee who withdraws. It applies only when the withdrawal comes 60 or more days before the election.

The school board has not announced a timetable for an election. It also has not said how it will handle representation for the rest of Strother’s current term, which expires Dec. 31, or for the term that begins in January.

Adam Inyang, who narrowly lost to Strother in the May 19 Democratic primary, is awaiting a ruling on his challenge to that election. Unofficial results showed Strother with 713 votes to Inyang’s 700.

Inyang, who is representing himself, said the judge had indicated he expected to rule this week. Senior Judge Greg McCorvey of the Tift Circuit is hearing the case. Inyang said he filed an additional legal memorandum Wednesday.

“I filed a supplemental memorandum of law to further expound on already admitted evidence,” Inyang said.

Nickerson said she did not believe the challenge would bear on the vacancy because Strother is no longer a candidate. She declined to discuss the case further.

“It’s ongoing litigation, so I can’t say anything on that note,” she said.

An Oct. 28 news release from Freeweb.network describes allegations presented during an Oct. 26 hearing in Dougherty County Superior Court. They include recurring scanner jams, improper ballot handling and a lack of records documenting equipment problems and how they were fixed.

According to the release, Inyang testified that his ballot jammed while he was voting. He said a poll worker removed it, placed it in the ballot collection bin and pressed the scanner’s “Cast” button, leading him to question whether his selections had been recorded.

The release also describes testimony by Board of Elections Chairman Benny Hand about a visit to the Sherwood precinct around lunchtime on Election Day. Hand said he was told that a poll worker had been repeatedly clearing scanner jams and placing ballots in the collection bin by hand.

Those accounts raise questions about ballot handling. They do not on their own establish that votes went uncounted.

State Election Board rules require a poll manager to notify the election superintendent immediately when voting equipment malfunctions. The poll manager must keep voters from using the affected equipment until the problem is corrected.

When a ballot scanner malfunctions, voters are to place their ballots in an emergency bin attached to the ballot box. Those ballots are counted once the scanner is working.

According to the release, testimony identified discrepancies between Election Day scanner and Poll Pad recap forms at four precincts. The gaps were 34 ballots at Westover, eight at Albany High, two at Sherwood and one at Albany State University’s West Campus.

Westover forms reviewed by The Albany Herald show 1,023 voters on the Poll Pad recap, including seven on supplemental lists. The scanner closing count was 989, a difference of 34.

Albany High’s forms show 432 voters checked in and 424 ballots scanned. At Sherwood, the check-in total on the Poll Pad form was crossed out and changed by hand from 360 to 485. The Sherwood scanner count was 487.

The figures are precinct-level accounting totals, not votes recorded for either school board candidate. The forms do not show how many ballots involved the District 4 Democratic contest or whether the discrepancies affected its outcome.

A separate county reconciliation spreadsheet compares ballots cast with voters credited for voting across all voting methods. It lists matching totals of 1,686 at Westover and 1,054 at ASU West.

It lists two more ballots than voter credits at Sherwood and one more at Albany High, attributing the differences to missing Election Day voter credits. At Albany High, that runs opposite to the Election Day forms, which show fewer ballots scanned than voters checked in.

The spreadsheet does not explain how Westover’s differing Election Day figures were resolved.

According to the release, Nickerson testified that many forms had not been completed correctly and attributed the inconsistencies to human error. The release’s assertion that the elections board admitted breaking laws is not a court finding. The records reviewed for this story did not include a hearing transcript or a court order.

Inyang said he still hopes to serve on the board.

“I am hopeful that now that she’s stepping down, that I will be able to step into the seat and help improve the school system for our community,” he said.

Strother’s statement did not address the election challenge.

“I recognize the uncertainty this creates for the voters who have entrusted me with their representation, and I sincerely apologize for the unfortunate timing,” she said in the statement.