Henry Whitehorn (left) John Nickelson (right)
Republican John Nickelson has won his lawsuit requesting a special election after challenging the result of the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s November 18th runoff election. He lost to Democrat Henry Whitehorn by one vote. Political Analyst Scott Hughes says retired Judge Joe Bleich identified at least 11 illegal votes.
“Its not surprising but still shocking to see a judge come out an actually void an election due primary to the inconsistencies in what he said was clearly a number of illegal votes and facing no other way to rectify what is a one vote margin.”
Of the eleven votes, two people voted twice, at least five mail-in votes were invalid, and four were cast by unqualified voters. Hughes expects Whitehorn to appeal the court’s decision to overturn the election.
“I believe it is a 24 hour deadline to appeal but given the law I don’t think an appeals is going to be very helpful. I believe the appellate judge will uphold this decision given the Supreme Court has already rendered several opinions on this.”
In a statement released Tuesday, Whitehorn expressed his disappointment:
“Overturning an election because the winner won by one vote is essentially saying, every vote matters, except if the win is by one.”
Hughes says the earliest an election can be held is next spring.
“So whoever wins this race will not be installed to the sheriff until next June. He just set March as the election day. And the only other thing on the ballot is the presidential primary race on top of what’s already a heated local race.”
Caddo Sheriff Steve Prator’s term ends June 30th.
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