Constable position still open amid controversy

The office of 11th District constable will remain open for now, despite write-in ballots cast during Thursday?s election, ballots election administrator Donna Yates says will go uncounted.

?The law clearly states for write-in ballots to be counted there must be a request in writing made no later than the 20th day before an election,? Yates said. ?Not only did no one apply for write-in candidacy in the 11th Constable District, but no one filed such papers for any office up for election.?

Questions surrounding the status of the 11th District constable spot were raised after 35 write-in ballots were cast in the northern Warren County district. Since the ballots won?t be counted, it will not be known who received the 35 votes, or if it was one person or several people.

While Yates said there is no vote minimum a candidate must receive to be elected during a general election, the fact no one applied for write-in candidacy or qualified for the ballot means there was technically never an election for the office in the 11th District.

?All it would have taken is 25 signatures of people in the district for the person to have qualified for the ballot itself,? Yates said. ?Or, to simply notify us by deadline of his or her write-in candidacy.?

The law was enacted to spare election commissioners from having to count frivolous write-in votes, some, according to Yates, which were cast for Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck every year.

While the election will be certified with no 11th District constable, which is an unpaid position, the Warren County Commission may opt to appoint a constable in that district if it desires. The remainder of the county?s 12 constable spots were filled by election Thursday.

Constable RESULTS

1st District
Bill Wanamaker 524

2nd District
Morris Holt 833

3rd District
Phillip ?Tank? Young 318
Travis Roberts 176
Robert Eschenbacher 136

4th District
Anthony Sorren Jr. 367

5th District
Jim Cunningham 310
Brian A. Holt 199

6th District
Jimmy Todd 359

7th District
Floyd Bouldin 531

8th District
Jerry Bird Scott 590

9th District
Louis Battles 421
Billy Joe Crouch 341

10th District
Charlie Humphrey 382
David Pennington 310

11th District
No candidate filed

12th District
Jonathan Womack 259
Rick Phillips 161
Ken Murray 135