Judge denies challenge to school board primary despite finding scanner ‘irregularities’

Melissa Strother, left, and Adam Inyang. A senior judge has denied Inyang’s challenge to their 12-vote May primary for the District 4 seat on the Dougherty County School Board. Strother has since resigned the seat after moving outside the district. Staff Photos: Kathryn Crockett

ALBANY — A senior judge has denied Adam Inyang’s challenge to the May Democratic primary for the District 4 seat on the Dougherty County School Board.

The judge ruled that Inyang showed “irregularities” in how ballots were scanned but did not prove those problems would have changed the outcome.

Senior Judge Gary C. McCorvey signed the order Oct. 28, two days after hearing the case in Dougherty County Superior Court. The order states that “all relief sought by Petitioner be, and the same hereby is, DENIED.”

Inyang, who represented himself, lost the May 19 primary to incumbent Melissa Strother. The order puts the totals at 713 votes for Strother and 701 for Inyang, a margin of 12 votes, or 0.85%.

The ruling does not resolve who will represent District 4. Strother announced Oct. 26 that she was stepping down after her family moved outside the district, and the school board acknowledged her resignation letter Oct. 29. Her name remained the only one on the Nov. 3 ballot for the seat.

Unofficial results posted by the Georgia Secretary of State show Strother, the only candidate on the ballot, received 3,523 votes across the district’s six precincts. More than half were cast before Election Day: 1,763 during advance voting and 91 by mail.

The county counted and reported those votes. Under state law, votes for a candidate are void and not counted only after the candidate files a notarized withdrawal with the election superintendent. On Oct. 28, Nickerson said her office had received no notice of Strother’s resignation.

Rules not followed

The order sides with Inyang on how the county handled scanner problems on Election Day.

McCorvey found that poll workers who had trouble with the ballot scanning equipment “did not follow proper procedures according to Georgia Secretary of State rules.” They did not report the problems to the election superintendent or prepare written reports of them, he wrote, “nor did the Board of Elections furnish any such reports to the Georgia Secretary of State.”

The judge described the core of Inyang’s case as a complaint that “the improperly functioning ballot scanners and the methods utilized in correcting such irregularities were not properly noted or reported locally or to the state level.” He noted that no one claimed any ballot was improperly prepared or that any voter received the wrong ballot.

Why the challenge failed

Georgia law lets a candidate contest a result on several grounds, including misconduct, fraud or irregularity by election officials “sufficient to change or place in doubt the result.” Another is an error in counting votes, but only “if such error would change the result.”

McCorvey wrote that Inyang had not shown misconduct, fraud or irregularity sufficient to place the result in doubt. He also found Inyang had not shown that illegal votes were received or legal votes rejected in numbers that could change the outcome.

In the next paragraph, the judge wrote that Inyang “has demonstrated ‘irregularities’ in scanning the ballots and thus the counting of the vote which could be interpreted as placing in doubt the result of the election in the opinion of this court.”

But he concluded the counting-error provision offered no remedy, because the court “cannot determine that such alleged error in counting would change the result rather than just possibly casting doubt on the result.”

The order also notes that neither side called a poll worker to testify. Inyang testified about what poll workers told him about problems at the precincts at issue. That testimony was hearsay, but the Board of Elections did not object to it, the judge wrote.

McCorvey found that Inyang’s petition laid out an adequate factual basis for his claim that votes were miscounted. He rejected a separate allegation involving polling place signage as “without merit.”

What the hearing covered

At the Oct. 26 hearing, Inyang testified that his own ballot jammed while he was voting, and according to Inyang, testimony by Board of Elections Chairman Benny Hand confirmed a Sherwood poll worker had been clearing repeated scanner jams and placing ballots in the collection bin by hand.

Election Day forms reviewed by The Albany Herald show a 34-ballot gap at the Westover precinct between voters checked in and ballots scanned. According to Inyang, testimony from Elections Supervisor Ginger P. Nickerson attributed inconsistencies on poll managers’ forms to human error.

Ryan Germany, the attorney representing the Board of Elections, suggested in closing arguments that the board could take corrective action and improve poll worker training. It says McCorvey also suggested new systems for documenting equipment problems.

What comes next

Georgia law allows an appeal of an election contest ruling within 10 days. However, filing an appeal does not automatically put the ruling on hold. 

Inyang told The Albany Herald on Friday that he does not plan to appeal and will wait to see how Strother’s resignation is resolved.