The Alabama Republican Party announced late Friday morning that it had decided to “vacate its earlier decision” to grant a previously rejected provisional vote to incumbent Tom Whatley that had made his state senate primary race against Jay Hovey an astounding 8,373-8,373 tie.
The decision meant that there would be no coin toss and that Jay Hovey, who earlier in the week had qualified to defend his Auburn City Council seat, would instead be running as the Republican nominee for Alabama Senate District 27 against Sherri Reese of Opelika on Nov. 8.
In its statement to the media, ALGOP said its decision was based on the new information provided by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency that “made it clear that the voter was not registered to vote.” It said that the process had revealed “several areas of serious concern” and vowed to work to solve those problems.
Hovey said he was thankful for the prayers and encouragement he’d received since taking a four-vote lead on election night on May 24.
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That lead dipped to a one-vote lead when provisional votes were counted on May 31, and then to a deadlock at a hearing on June 23 when ALGOP’s Candidate Committee allowed a provisional vote that was later ruled to be illegal.
“This has been a potentially divisive experience,” Hovey wrote in a text message around noon Friday to the Opelika-Auburn News. “But we have maintained that we would be successful by standing with integrity and running a clean campaign about me and my desire to serve.”
ALEA statement
ALGOP had scheduled a second hearing by conference call for 10:10 a.m. Friday, in which Hovey and Whatley would have had 10 minutes each to present his case to the candidate committee regarding the statement from ALEA.
At the first hearing on Saturday, the committee had decided to accept the previously rejected provisional vote, which had been cast by a Tallapoosa County woman. That vote was added to Whatley’s total, and the race was declared a tie. According to Alabama code, the tie would be broken “by lot,” such as flipping a coin.
“The party felt compelled to go with their feelings instead of the facts, and the facts were substantiated by ALEA a day later,” Hovey said on Wednesday.
ALEA’s statement, released on Sunday, questioned the validity of that provisional vote.
According to the statement, the voter applied for an Alabama driver’s license but did not complete the process, was not issued the license and did not sign the required voter declaration.
Meanwhile, Hovey filed a motion requesting a re-hearing.
Early Wednesday morning, Whatley told the media through a spokesman that the coin toss was scheduled for later that day.
Hovey responded by saying that nobody had told him about a coin toss that day, and that ALGOP Chairman John Wahl had told him that if there was one, it would take place after the Fourth of July weekend.
“Whatley’s sudden change of schedule is in no doubt directly related to the public unraveling of the legitimacy of his additional provisional vote,” Hovey wrote in an email to the O-A News.
On Wednesday afternoon, Hovey said that the Alabama Republican Party had received his request for a re-hearing and that “there is certainly no plans for a coin toss anytime soon.” The party sent out the order for the re-hearing on Thursday and set the date for Friday.
Friday morning
On Friday morning, several hours before the second hearing was to occur, Whatley issued a statement to the media that he had conceded the race to Hovey.
He called his 12 years in office “fantastic” and said serving the people of Lee, Tallapoosa and Russell counties was “the honor of a lifetime.”
When asked for his reaction, Hovey told the Opelika-Auburn News that he’d heard the news from the press but not from Whatley himself or the Alabama Republican Party.
Around 11:30 a.m., ALGOP released its statement confirming that Whatley had withdrawn before the re-hearing was scheduled to be held that day and that Hovey will be the Republican Party nominee for Alabama Senate District 27.
In its statement, ALGOP said that the statement from ALEA “makes it clear” that the provisional vote in question should not have counted because the voter had not registered.
“This election cycle has revealed several areas of serious concern in the election process,” the statement continued. “These issues led to problems that hurt the Alabama Republican Party, our candidates, and our voters. We plan to work with lawmakers, the Secretary of State, Probate Judges, Boards of Registrars, and ALEA to find solutions to these problems, and to make sure they don’t happen again.
“The ALGOP believes Alabama and our voters deserve better. We invite Councilman Hovey and Senator Whatley – as well as our other candidates – to join us in this effort.”
