In front of representatives of the Louisiana Elections Compliance Divisions, Jackson Parish Clerk of Court, Laura Culpepper, conducted a recount of the absentee and mail-in votes of the Mayor and Alderman at Large races for the Town of Jonesboro on Tuesday, November 15th.
The recount was done following a request made to the Louisiana Secretary of State’s Office by current Jonesboro Mayor, Leslie Thompson, and candidate for the Alderman at Large position, Danettia Cooper Hayes. Assisting Culpepper with the recount was Jackson Parish Registrar of Voters, Angie Roberts, Attorney Theresa Carroll, and Sarah Lolley. Paul Blanchard, Justin Starnes, and Jack Gilbert represented the Louisiana Elections Compliance Division.
According to Louisiana Election law, a candidate may request a recount of absentee/mail-in ballots only if the number of such ballots could change the election outcome. Requesters are responsible for costs associated with the recount but costs paid by the requesters are refunded if the recount changes the election outcome.
“I have been running for office since 1992 and this was the closest margin of an outcome I can remember,” said Thompson when asked why he had asked for a recount “As there was such a small difference in the votes, we (Thompson campaign) wanted to make sure that a third party verified that the numbers were correct.”
Final election day tabulations showed that Thompson lost to James “Spike” Harris by 20 votes (685-665) in the Mayor’s race and that Hayes lost to incumbent Nia Evans-Johnson by 23 votes (657-634) in the Alderman at Large election. A total of 118 absentee and mail-in votes were cast for Mayor while 112 votes were balloted for Alderman at Large.
After the ballots were counted and then re-counted, it was verified that Hayes received 58 mail-in/absentee votes compared to 54 for Johnson in the Alderman at Large race and that Harris had received 77 votes and Thompson 41. These were the exact same results that had been reported in both races. Both Hayes and Thompson were asked if they were in agreement with the numbers shown in the recount and accepted the tabulations, to which they replied they were.
Thompson further stated that the recount was not done to try and show improprieties but to make sure everything was done correctly.
“We have no questions as to the integrity of those involved and are making no allegations that anyone had done anything wrong or illegal, that is not our position,” furthered Thompson. “It is simply the fact the margin was so close we wanted to make sure that all the numbers were right.”
When asked what his plan in moving forward was, Thompson stated he would now move to have the early voting numbers confirmed.
“Being the first time that we have had the experience of how this process works we thought that we would get to verify the early votes also, but I now learned that a separate request has to be made for that,” said Thompson. “So in the next couple of days, we will make a formal request to move forward with that.”
Thompson was then asked if after he gained the information requested and it showed no differences would he then concede the election.
“There are other issues we have to get clarified before I will concede,” confirmed Thompson. “We have concerns that there were people that tried to walk their ballots in on the final day of mail-in voting but were turned away. We don’t understand why those ballots weren’t accepted. We know those votes were accepted in other states, but here, voters were not allowed to do that, so we want clarification on that.”
“We also have reports that at least one voting machine didn’t work properly during the day and that people tried to vote but weren’t allowed as they had been purged from the rolls even though they voted in the last election. Those are major issues,” added Thompson. “I submitted that information to the Clerk of Court. but did so with the request to review the mail-in/absentee ballots. I was told that to have these other issues looked into I needed to make a separate request to the Secretary of State about those, which I intend to do in the next few days. Then and only then, after all these issues have been resolved will I consider conceding the election.”