Tuesday, May 25, 2010, 5:41 pm News Flash Archive

Today, Willie Perkins filed papers in the Circuit Court to intervene in the Election Commission lawsuit, and to overturn the consent decree, this after a big stink was raised at last week's Voters League meeting.

The suit was filed by the Republican Party to try to stop illegal assistance and interference with official poll watchers by the poll managers. The law requires a person to provide a valid reason to obtain assistance while voting, but the poll managers in certain precincts refuse to obey that law and instead allow illegal assistance to voters who do not need it.

The minutes of the Election Commission show that all five election commissioners voted to approve the consent decree. With that, the Republican Party agreed to dismiss the lawsuit with the court entering that Consent Decree.

The Consent Decree order requires the Election Commission to obey the election laws and see that they are enforced, without admitting any blame in the matter for past actions.

Now David Jordan and Robert Moore have gotten Willie Perkins to attempt to overturn that lawsuit settlement on several grounds, including the claim that it "changes the customary [sic] and practice of voter assistance in Mississippi" - in other words, we've been breaking the law all this time, and it's not fair to make us start obeying it now.

It will be interesting to see whether the Republican Party will continue to defend the consent decree in court and ensure that the election laws are complied with.

John Pittman Hey
The Taxpayers Channel

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