Atlantic Beach election results up in the air

After almost seven hours of testimony Wednesday, the Atlantic Beach Election Commission decided to continue hearing protests of the Town Council elections next week.

The commission's attorney, John Zilinsky, said he needed to check his schedule before confirming a date, but he tentatively agreed to Tuesday morning. Commissioners covered roughly half the issued planned for Wednesday's protect before ending for the day.

A protest was raised by incumbents Charlene Taylor and Josephine Isom after a challenged ballots hearing last week flipped the election results in favor of write-in candidates Windy Price and Carolyn Cole.

In their protest the incumbents alleged that neither Cole nor Price live within Atlantic Beach city limits, that voting irregularities occurred at the town's polling place and that there were issues with absentee voting. Another protest from challenger Paul Curry will be heard when the hearing continues next week.

"We have several issues to address today including the residency of Ms. Cole and Ms. Price. ... We want to set forth our legal position and that is that there were other issues both with absentee voting and with the law that there shall be no campaigning within 200 feet of a polling place. We believe that law was broken," said attorney John Leiter, representing Taylor and Isom. "A cornerstone of our democracy is a free and fair election."

Both sides called numerous witnesses Wednesday, including Price and her husband Darnell Price, Cole, Taylor, Patricia Bellamy - president of the Atlantic Beach Concerned Citizens - a private investigator, poll watchers and poll workers, town employees, and suspended Atlantic Beach Mayor Retha Pierce, with whom Cole and Price say they live. Leiter called witnesses who said they saw Pierce inappropriately campaigning outside the polling place and trying to coach voters. Pierce denied the allegations and said she handed out one card with the write-in candidates' names on it, after a voter asked how to spell their names.

Several witnesses answered questions with disdain during what was an overall emotional hearing. Both sides objected frequently to points ranging from alleged previous convictions to conspiracy theories about town and election officials conspiring to keep names off the ballot.

"Just because you don't like the questions, doesn't give you the right to object," Zilinsky told Cole.

Cole quickly answered, "Just because you don't like me doesn't mean you can prevent me from objecting."

Cole, who represented herself at the hearing and Price's attorney Gary White, both said the hearing itself shouldn't have happened because they allege only Curry filed his protest on time, and that the two incumbents never notified the write-ins of the protest or the points they planned on addressing.

"We want evidence of what notice was given to myself and Reverend Price," Cole said. "Notice of the meeting does not constitute notice of service. ... It is our right to have time to prepare our case against their allegations and we were not given that time or that notice."

Both sides asked that various members of the election commission be disqualified.

Leiter said his clients believed that Nicole Kenion, a commissioner who protested the hearing saying she had not received the protests on time, had been involved in campaigning for the write-in candidates. Cole and White asked that commissioners Alice Graham and Linda Booker be disqualified because of decisions and actions they argued showed bias against the write-in candidates. None of the requests was immediately granted.

The commission's ruling could be challenged by either side after it is made. At that point, appeals would begin through the court system, stalling certification of the election. If the commission rules in favor of the incumbents' protest on the grounds of voting irregularities, and that decision is upheld in an appeal, a new election for the Town Council could be held.