Centreville Mayor Mike Oakley has filed a lawsuit challenging the results of the city’s August 26 mayoral election in which he lost to challenger Barry Cooner by merely two votes.
Oakley’s challenge, filed late last week, claims that “ballots not due to be counted were included in the declared results” and that legal votes in favor of Oakley were not counted, resulting in Cooner’s narrow victory.
The vote count between the two candidates was initially tied on election night, with Oakley and Cooner receiving 326 votes each. Then, on September 2, the Centreville canvassing board reviewed eight provisional ballots cast during the election.
The canvassing board found that only four of the provisional ballots qualified as lawful votes, adding one vote in favor of Oakley and three votes in favor of Cooner. Oakley’s suit alleges that “miscalculation, mistake, or misconduct” resulted in some combination of illegal votes being counted in favor of Cooner and legal votes in favor of Oakley being rejected, causing Oakley to lose a contest he should have legally won.
“This is not an issue of a sore loser or someone who is not accepting the election results, this is simply an investigation into the election to ensure that all the lawful votes were counted and that there were no unlawful votes or illegal votes that were cast,” Mayor Oakley’s attorney Joel Blankenship told APR.
“[The suit was filed] just purely to ensure the accuracy and transparency of this election and to make sure that the will of the voters of Centreville is actually carried out,” Blankenship added.
Cooner told APR that he is aware of Oakley’s challenge, but has yet to receive the official legal summons related to the suit. Cooner said that he will file an official response to the suit within 5 days of receiving the summons, as is required by Alabama law.
“I am looking forward to serving as the next mayor of Centreville, and I look forward to serving the next four years with transparency, honesty, and integrity,” Cooner added.
Oakley’s lawsuit is now in the hands of the Bibb County Circuit Court pending Cooner’s response.
