The Alabama Republican Party has decided to hold hearings for four contested elections, including the State Senate District 27 race between Jay Hovey and incumbent Tom Whatley.
Hovey clung to a four-vote lead over Whatley on election night after all the votes were tallied from the polling places in Lee, Russell and Tallapoosa. After the provisional ballots were counted on May 31, Hovey remained in the lead by just one vote.
Jeannie Burniston, the Alabama Republican Party communications director, said she received word that the hearings are set for June 25.
Lee County Judge Bill English said the hearing will be similar to a trial but will be less formal. Whatley will present why the election results should be revoked and Hovey will present why the results should stand.
Both candidates will present their arguments before the State Republican Party Executive Committee’s Candidate Contest Committee, which will eventually declare a winner.
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English said the committee could decide that the nomination stands with Hovey as the winner, that the race is too close and a new election is needed, or that the nomination shouldn’t stand and that Whatley or someone else should be selected, English said.
With the hearing scheduled, English said there will be a second round of papers that need to be filed that state more specifically the reason for the contest.
“There will be some further clarification that will have to be done before that hearing,” English said. “The contest petition, as generally filed and as this one is filed, it’s a very generic list. There’s no specificity about what they allege.”
The Candidate Committee also decided to conduct hearings for the races for Alabama House District 2, Alabama House District 28 and Alabama House District 29.
“The Committee will be complying with the process laid out in the applicable state statutes,” the release from ALGOP said. “The remaining contests that were submitted did not meet the threshold for a hearing by the committee.”
If the District 27 race had not been selected to be heard by the committee, Burniston said, the election results would have stayed the same and Hovey would have been named the winner with his one-vote lead.
As of Monday, there has been no word of a recount.
The deadlines to file to contest the results or to request a recount were both at noon Thursday, June 2.
The winner of this race will run against Democrat candidate Sherri Reese of Opelika in the general election in November.
