Court upholds judge's ruling ordering new election in Louisiana sheriff's race decided by one vote
SHREVEPORT, La. — A divided state appeals court has upheld a judge's ruling who ordered a new election for a Louisiana sheriff's race that was decided by a single vote.
In a 3-2 ruling, the Second Circuit Court of Appeal in Shreveport, Louisiana, said Tuesday that Republican candidate for sheriff in Caddo Parish, John Nickelson, had shown that two people had voted illegally twice in the Nov. 18 election and that four others had already voted. they were not eligible to vote.
Furthermore, the majority found no error in the lower court's finding that Nickelson could not have been aware of the problematic votes before Election Day.
“Given the one-vote margin between the candidates, the invalidation of these six votes alone is sufficient to make it legally impossible to determine the outcome of the election,” Justice Jeff Robinson wrote for the majority.
Democrat Henry Whitehorn, the declared winner in the sheriff's race, had argued that Nickelson had not challenged the votes in time. Whitehorn had also argued that Nickelson failed to establish that any of the challenged voters voted in the sheriff's race.
Whitehorn said he planned to continue fighting in court.
“My opponent has not proven that these alleged irregularities caused him to lose,” he said in a statement on his campaign's Facebook page.
Whitehorn was declared the winner last month after topping Nickelson by a margin of one vote, out of more than 43,000 votes cast. A recount yielded the same result.
In a dissenting opinion, Judge Shonda Stone of the Second Circuit Court of Appeal said the lower court failed to address the question of why Nickelson could not have challenged the votes at the ballot box.
In a separate dissent, Judge Marcus Hunter said there was no evidence that voting irregularities were “so widespread” as to justify throwing out the election results. He added that Nickelson had failed to prove that the outcome of the election would have been different without the irregularities.
“At a time when elections and election integrity are increasingly coming under heavy fire from both parties, this Court must be careful not to throw the accelerant of every closely contested election into the pile of controversy, and where necessary, not toss the accelerant into the piles on controversy, further fueling such divisions. flames,” he wrote.
The race for Caddo Parish sheriff is the nation's second local election this year in which a judge has declared the results invalid. Last month, a judge ordered a reconsideration of a Democratic mayoral election in Connecticut's largest city over possible ballot issues, a case that fueled conspiracy theories pushed on social media.
The topic of election integrity has also been at the forefront of national politics following former President Donald Trump's false claims about the 2020 presidential election.
The one-vote margin in the Caddo Parish sheriff's race also put a spotlight on Louisiana's recount process. It is the only state that continues to use paperless, touchscreen voting machines, which do not produce an auditable paper trail that experts say is critical to ensuring results are accurate.
Election officials, including Louisiana Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin, have reiterated that the state's elections are secure and that checks and balances are in place to ensure voting integrity.