Jackson Jambalaya

Note: Attorney Cory Wilson will appear on WJNT at 8:05 this morning to discuss the verdict.

Looks like we got ourselves a rematch in Canton. A judge threw out the results of the alderman's election in Ward 1 and ordered a new one be held. The Governor will select the date.  The Clarion-Ledger reported:

"The election for Ward 1 alderman in Canton is going back to the voters after a Circuit Court judge ruled Tuesday that illegal voting and voter intimidation occurred in the May Democratic primary.

After a two-day hearing, Judge Forrest Johnson Jr. of Natchez said the will of the voters could not be determined through the May 7 ballot box. He ordered the election results for Ward 1 alderman be tossed and a new election called while allowing Rodriquez Brown, who won the June 4 election, to remain in office.

“Whether one agrees or disagrees, the evidence I heard is disturbing to say the least,” said Johnson, who was appointed to hear the case by the Mississippi Supreme Court. “For poll workers to endure what I’ve heard is not right.” Mr. Brown is the nephew of Ike Brown.

Ray Rosamond filed the court challenge after losing to Brown by four votes in the Democratic primary. Brown had no comment after the judge issued his ruling and would not say if he plans to appeal to the state Supreme Court.

Johnson ruled that Kimberly Readus, a member of the Canton Democratic Municipal Executive Committee, used “profanity and bullying tactics to create a breach of the peace, intimidate voters and poll workers to disrupt the election process.”

After listening to testimony from poll workers and poll watchers in the Ward 1 precinct, Johnson also found that Readus wrongly allowed voters, who should have voted by a paper affidavit ballot — which could have been challenged later — to use the electronic voting machines. In one instance, he said, “contrary to law” Readus also tore up an affidavit ballot."

Ah, Kimberly Readus. You might remember her. Banned from Northpark for life. Convicted of felony shoplifting and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. WLBT reported in May:

""A member of the Canton Democratic Municipal Executive Committee was arrested late Tuesday night in the Madison County courthouse when a disagreement about vote counting led to an altercation.

Witnesses told Madison County deputies that 41-year-old Kimberly Readus was involved in an altercation with an elderly woman, when Readus and other committee members attempted to leave the courthouse with unsealed ballot boxes.

Bystanders added that Readus and the other committee members were attempting to leave the courthouse before completing the vote count.

Readus reportedly called the woman a "baboon's ass" during the altercation. She was subsequently charged with disturbing the peace, resisting arrest and providing false information to law enforcement Earlier post

However, I digress. The story continues:

“The court finds it clearly appears that Kimberly Readus willfully and corruptly violated election law,” Johnson said.

While the judge declined to issue an arrest warrant from the bench for Readus, who no longer is a member of the municipal committee, Johnson directed the offices of the Madison County district attorney and the state attorney general to present charges against her to the next grand jury...

As another basis for his decision, Johnson said that four or more of affidavit ballots — the votes of those whose names are not on the poll book — were undocumented and should not have been counted.

“We’re elated for the people of Canton and of Ward 1,” said Cory Wilson, Rosamond’s attorney, “so they can have a fair and honest and accurate election. This also sends a message to the people of Mississippi that the law should be followed.”

During the hearing, witnesses for Rosamond testified about the chaotic atmosphere and questionable voting practices they saw in the Ward 1 precinct. Stella Johnson, the assistant poll manager, testified Monday that candidate Brown and his mother called her and another poll worker “monkeys” when they assisted a voter curbside.

“ ‘Monkeys,’ for poll workers to be treated this way is not acceptable in Canton or anywhere,” Johnson said at the conclusion of the hearing.

Wilson said Rosamond’s case presented “willful violations of election procedures. At the end of the day, the integrity of the election was destroyed by what happened that day at the precinct and how the Democratic Executive Committee handled it.” Article