TULSA, Okla. — A battle over ballots between two Tulsa City council candidates. The District 5 incumbent and the man who could replace him filed dueling petitions over "voter irregularities" at one precinct on election day.
Grant Miller, who got more votes on Tuesday in the District 5 city council race and his attorney filed a petition for a hand-recount of all the ballots at Precinct 77.
The DA is investigating irregularities at that precinct on election day and that 30-40 people did not get city ballots for their city council race.
However, incumbent councilor, Mykey Arthrell, said a recount is not enough and he wants an investigation.
“I just think it’s important that the public get to see what has happened and that a ruling be made on it,” Arthrell said.
Friday, Arthrell filed a petition for irregularity, claiming there were several problems surrounding the District 5 election Tuesday. Among them, he claimed eligible voters from every party did not receive ballots and that the Tulsa County Sheriff made misleading comments on live T.V., while polls were still open.
"Essentially what was passed on to me was not just the video but information that pollsters there were not giving yellow ballots which would be for the city council race to republicans and they were only being given to democrats, independents and libertarians, " Sheriff Vic Regalado said at the news conference Tuesday.
“The Sheriff Vic Regalado endorsed my opponent grant Miller, Grant Miller called him directly on his cellphone to begin this investigation, who then held the press conference who incorrectly made the assertion that it was only republicans….that was not true it was all party affiliations that were denied ballots," Arthrell said.
At that same conference, The Tulsa Election Board provided a breakdown of the parties represented by the voters affected.
"There were 19 republicans, 7 democrats, 4 independents and 1 libertarian that were denied city council ballots," Gwen Freeman, Tulsa Election Board Secretary said.
Arthrell's challenger, Grant Miller, held a press conference shortly after that filing. Miller stated he was the one who recorded the video that prompted the Sheriff's investigation.
“I’m the one who actually uncovered the issue going on, had I not gone down there and told them, or asked them what was happening, they would have continued not handing out resident ’s ballots and that would be a shame because it would have totally swayed this election," Miller said.
Arthrell's petition questions if state campaigning laws were broken because miller went to several voting sites that day and questioned workers.
Miller's attorney, Ron Durbin, said no, calling the claims absurd.
“Frankly, I’ve read their petitions. It’s a frivolous filing and we’re going to file a motion to dismiss for a frivolous filing," Durbin said.
Arthrell said it's the District Attorney's job to correct the irregularities and said he just wants the public to know what exactly happened and a ruling to be made.
Now that the irregularity claim has been filed with the court, the judge will have access to information such as who was turned away and if they were able to return to get their ballots counted.
Then, the judge will determine whether these irregularities lead to a revote or not.
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