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The Oklahoma State Election board held a marathon docket of hearings today. At issue were 15 contests of candidacy for various elections ranging from district judge to legislator, to State Attorney General.
At 9am the contestants and contestees were all required to be at room 230 of the state capitol for a roll call of sorts and to demonstrate that they would even have the right to make their case. The election board secretary, Paul Ziriax, announced 2 cases were settled already. One was by a candidate withdrawal from a race and the other was a contestant withdrawing his complaint against his opponent. Then Rep. Kevin McDugle had to plead mercy when he failed to follow instructions and have a cashiers check to present to the board. The board gave him until noon to come back with the proper fee in proper form. One other novice candidate also took advantage of that precedent and got the same mercy. Rep. Bobby Cleveland and one other contestant succeeded when the contestees failed to show up. Cleveland had 2 such cases ruled by default for failure to appear. Then came the main event. The Drummond v Hunter case. We wrote about that decision earlier today. Hunter was allowed to stay in the race despite declaring principle residence in Virginia within the past 10 years. |
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After the lunch break the cases averaged 30 minutes per final ruling. The widow of David Brumbaugh was allowed to run under the name she held for 20 years. She did marry this month and the board provided accommodation for her to update her legal name change. Ford claimed that Shelly Brumbaugh is seeking to deceive the voters. the board didn't buy it. Nor did they when Sen. Anestasia Pittman's daughter was challenged under a similar argument by Nkem House.
McDugle avoided some very damaging revelations in the room when he claimed his former residence which he hasn't been living in since Easter of last year. Two months later his abandoned wife finally filed for divorce. McDugle was living in OKC and having an affair with another woman. Mahoney's legal council dropped the ball on a couple of key points and procedures. |
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At the beginning of the day there was not sufficient room for all parties to fit in the hearing room and several times the 'bailiff' had to go out to the hall and summon parties in for new cases.
The final matter was not adjudicated until after 8pm. |
AG Mike Hunter greets the opponent who challenged his candidate qualifications on residency requirements.
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