What would a Canton election be without some Blackmon drama?
Canton power broker and former State Senator Barbara Blackmon petitioned the Madison County Circuit Court for an injunction against the Canton Municipal Democratic Executive Committee Thursday on behalf of Nancy Crutcher and several John Does.
The Canton municipal Democratic primary runoff election is held today.
The petition claims Canton annexed The Trails of Madison, Kingston Subdivision, and the Trailer Park in 2021. Residents are thus eligible to vote in Canton elections. However, Ms. Blackmon claims, the plaintiffs could not vote in the April 1 Democratic primary because the city of Canton did not update the voter rolls. Thus the addresses in the voter rolls did not match the data in the Statewide Election Management System (SEMS).
The Committee allegedly did not correct the discrepancy, thus denying the residents their right to vote. The petition asked the Court to give the residents extra time to vote and stop the defendant from certifying today's election.
Madison County Circuit Judge Dewey Arthur had some good news and bad news for Ms. Blackmon. The Court stated the city itself "refuses to give" the Circuit Clerk a "usable format" for adding the residents to the voter rolls for use in SEMS. (Anyone surprised?) The Committee refused to accept affidavit ballots from the annexed areas in the April 1 primary.
Judge Arthur denied the request to delay certification of the runoff elections yesterday until the residents in the annexed areas have a chance to vote on a regular voting machine. He pointed out it would be impossible to add their addresses to SEMS with less than 24 hours notice. "There is no reason to extend voting beyond Tuesday, April 22, 2025.
Although he denied Ms. Blackmon's request for extra time, the Court was not without mercy as it decreed the Committee must count "any affidavit ballot" in the annexed areas in question. The ballots can not be cast out just because they are not registered in SEMS.
Judge Arthur turned his attentions to the city of Canton itself. The city "must" submit the street and address range with the correct wards for the annexed areas to the Madison County Circuit Clerk within 30 days. "The municipality may not axes citizens and then disenfranchise the same citizens," held the Court.
10 comments:
Disenfranchisement class action law suit in 3, 2, 1...
Sounds like justified drama.
I doubt Blackmons will fight this very hard due to the fact that theres no money involved for them. I'm thankful judge Arthur has the cajones to put the all mighty and powerful Blackons in their place.
It is understood up here that the Blackmon's do have an interest in the outcome of our elections. Apparently Comelia Walker will push for them to be the City Attorney again which will once again allow big money going to them.
Blackmon is correct in that you can't annex and then deny their vote. However, bringing this up 24 hours before the runoff was not the time to fire off this filing. April 2nd would have been the correct date.
One theory: She intentionally waited to the last minute while hoping for a denial so that there would be a cause of action to sue.
10:11 BINGO! Always wants to stir up the drama. Before long, "the card" will be used. Hang tight, let me reference the rest of the playbook to see what else might happen...
Wasn’t she the drama queen that said “God” told her she would win an election when she woke up in the morning after the election? How’d that work out?
I don't believe Rule 9 allows a plaintiff to designate fictitious parties as co-plaintiffs, but the Blackmons don't exactly strike me as students of the law.
On another note, is the city using tricks it learned from the Blackmons, themselves?
I wish the city of Madison could secede from Madison County. We have 82 counties in Ms, why not 83?
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