Three school board candidates and one city commissioner candidate who ran in the November 5 general election in Johnson City, Tennessee are pushing forward with a lawsuit against the Washington County Election Commission claiming that at least 50 votes cast in the race were improperly counted and certified.
The lawsuit was filed on November 27 in Washington County Chancery Court by school board candidates Ryan Berkley, Zaire Gary, and Sam Pettyjohn, and city commission candidate Jay Emberton – all of who were unsuccessful in their respective races.
The complaint calls for a rerun of the Johnson City commission race, citing that “at least 50 illegal ballots” were cast in the race – with a majority of the votes called into question being cast by residents of Heather Lane, which is Carter County and not inside Johnson City limits.
The Johnson City Commission race was decided by a razor-thin margin, with incumbent Joe Wise defeating fellow incumbent Aaron Murphy for the final available spot on the commission by just 38 votes.
On December 16, the Washington County Election Commission filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit brought by the plaintiffs, arguing that the complaint should have been filed in Carter County and that the plaintiffs do not have standing to bring such a complaint.
In addition, the Washington County Election Commission’s motion also proposes that if the case is not dismissed, plaintiffs Zaire Gary, Sam Pettyjohn, and Ryan Berkley be dismissed as party plaintiffs as they were not candidates in the city commission race.
Three days later, the plaintiffs filed a motion with the court to continue with the case.
Local outlet WJHL reports that Chancellor John Rambo has set Tuesday, January 7, as a date to hear pre-trial motions in the case and Monday, January 13, as a trial date.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Voting Booths” by Lorie Shaull. CC BY 2.0.
