Judge orders certification of sheriff runoff election

Comanche County District Judge Jay Walker rejected a petition Tuesday seeking to deny certification of the Comanche County sheriff’s race.

The action means Comanche County Election Board Secretary Amy Sims will call a special meeting of the board this week to certify election results that will designate Michael Merritt as the Republican nominee who will face Democratic candidate David Stroud in the Nov. 5 General Election.

The action completes a process that would have finalized the results of that election three days after Republican voters cast ballots for either Merritt or Andy Moon. The election board suspended that certification process Aug. 30 after Comanche County District Attorney Kyle Cabelka filed a petition in District Court earlier that day, saying irregularities found made it impossible to determine with certainty who won the election. His petition asked the court to deny certification of that election.

Walker heard arguments Tuesday from Cabelka and from two attorneys representing the Comanche County and Oklahoma State election boards: Assistant Attorney General Evan J. Edler and Rachel Rogers, an attorney representing the state election board.

In his ruling, Walker said he hadn’t heard any evidence supporting the requirement that the results of the election could not be determined with certainty. Walker cited the eight ballots that state and local election board officials said met the definition of “irregularities,” versus the 6,562 ballots cast in the Republican runoff election for sheriff. He said the difference was not close to what would have had to happen to affect the winner of that race, and he directed the election board to certify the election results.

Walker also lauded Cabelka for challenging the election results, saying the public must have confidence in the election process and Cabelka’s questions raised some good points.

“Kudoes to the district attorney,” he said, adding it was important for the public to know the district attorney and average citizens are monitoring the process.

During his presentation, Cabelka presented three voters who had proven incidents of irregularity: Amber Hall (registered as independent) and Seth Moran (a registered Democrat) who were given ballots to vote in the Republican sheriff election; and Debra Myers, a Republican who should have received a sheriff’s ballot but did not. Hall said Moran brought the matter to the attention of the election board on election night, and called the media the next day about the issue (electing to remain anonymous in the new story). It was that story that brought the matter to Cabelka’s attention, Cabelka has said.

“I felt my trust in this election was sullied,” Hall said, adding she and Moran heard some discussions from precinct workers about whether they should have received the ballots.

“The whole situation gave me pause,” Moran said, adding he felt “something was not done right.”

Cabelka walked Sims through the process of holding elections, as well actions taken by local and state election board officials to review then audit the results of the runoff election, the process used to identify eight instances of irregularities. But, Cabelka said there were other irregularities outside the ballots, to include precinct workers who didn’t follow the rules on assigning codes to voters as they registered identifying them as Republicans and eligible to vote in the sheriff’s race.

He also questioned resident Amber Evans, who has begun evaluating the Oklahoma Data Warehouse, a digital system that tracks voter information, to include how often individuals have voted. Evans, whose husband is the Comanche County Republican Party chair, said her analysis shows there are 2,500 Republican voters who don’t have a voter credit in the recent election, which Cabelka characterized as another potential irregularity.

During her questioning, Rogers said voter credits are not the same as irregularities. In his ruling, Walker noted there had been arguments presented during Tuesday’s hearing that were not relevant to the central issue: were there enough irregularities to prevent certification of the election.

In his initial arguments asking Walker to dismiss the petition, Edler said the answer was no, saying state statutes specify the number of irregularities must be so large it could change the outcome of the election or result in a deadlock. Otherwise, law demands the petition be deemed frivolous. He said Merrit won by a 628-vote margin, while auditors identified eight irregularities.

Edler had initially filed a motion to dismiss, but Walker ruled on that motion before the hearing began, dismissing it because pertinent questions needed to be answered.

“We need to protect this (election process) at all costs,” Walker said. 

Following the hearing, Cabelka said he is weighing his decisions on if or how to proceed.