Harpole files appeal in sheriff's race

By By Fredie Carmichael / staff writer
Feb. 10, 2004
Johnny Harpole still holds out hope to become sheriff of Kemper County.
Harpole filed an appeal with the Mississippi Supreme Court on Monday at the Kemper County Circuit Clerk's Office to challenge his defeat in last fall's Democratic primary runoff.
Bolivar County Circuit Court Judge Albert B. Smith decided last month not to reconsider his dismissal of Harpole's case against the Kemper County Democratic Executive Committee and Sheriff Samuel Tisdale for what Harpole charges was a tainted election.
Harpole first challenged the Aug. 26 runoff in which Tisdale was certified the winner by 40 votes after candidates reviewed ballot boxes and Harpole found what he called ballot irregularities.
A Kemper County Democratic Executive Committee hearing on Harpole's runoff challenge found that absentee ballots had been allowed that were not legal. The committee could not substantiate other claims.
The committee threw all absentee ballots out, and then certified Tisdale the winner by 159 votes. Tisdale then defeated two independents in November and won re-election with 56 percent of the vote.
Smith, who was appointed to hear the case by the state Supreme Court late last year, said there were several "fatal defects" in Harpole's petition, which required the court to dismiss it.
Smith also stated that the court lacked jurisdiction in the matter because Harpole didn't allege any act or failure to act on the part of the Democratic Executive Committee that would allow the court to undertake a judicial review of the committee's findings.
Harpole said he will wait and see how the state Supreme Court responds to his appeal.