Malay – On Thursday, Caroway Attorney General Antonia Falkner proves her ballot position after mayor candidate Cliff Darnell accuses Mayor Bob Rogers of deliberately pulling the ballot position twice. Earlier, I notified the candidate that he was seeking feedback from Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s office.
Darnell said he witnessed Rogers pull out a numbered ping-pong ball, glance at it, put it back and draw another ball during a draw at Calloway County Hall on June 9. .. He later submitted a request for public records to the county judge’s office to obtain security footage of the drawings. A video that Darnell later posted on Facebook shows a drawing from a scenic location overhead of a security camera on the ceiling.
Darnell said he had filed a complaint with Faulkner because there was no law outlining procedures to deal with this type of complaint.
Faulkner sent a letter to both Rogers and Darnell on Thursday stating: (KRS118.215). The draw was 1st place Bob Rogers and 2nd place Clifton F. Darnell.
“After the painting was completed, I noticed that candidate Mayor Clifton Darnell witnessed the incumbent Mayor Bob Rogers painting twice. I hurried, and by my mistake, the county. I did not address the complaint at that time, except to notify Mr. Darnell that the official public record request for the video footage from the judge was his first step. As a county secretary, I paint. I was entrusted with the activity and chose to be the one who had the picture box for each candidate. I felt that nothing malicious had happened. After hearing the rumors of Mr. Darnell’s accusations, Rogers He contacted him. Rogers said he wasn’t cheating and explained his groping in the drawings. After watching the video footage, he could understand Darnell’s accusations. I did.
“The next day, I contacted county lawyer David Perrault, county judge Kenneth C. Aimes, members of the (County Election Commission) Melisa Stark, William Cowan, and Deputy Sheriff Richard Steen. I contacted SBE for the council on this issue and investigated it to the best of my ability. I found that there was no priority in such cases. Found that a candidate may choose to withdraw from the race (KRS 118.212) and may challenge the candidate’s integrity (KRS118.176) (this is the candidate’s). Because it is related to good intentions).
“It was proposed to redraw the position of the ballot. Based on my interpretation of KRS 118.215 (6),” The candidate’s voting position or candidate’s slate is designated by the county secretary. It is assumed that it will not be changed after that. “I think that redrawing is not an option. And, only for the interpretation of KRS 118.215, Note 2 Note-Obligation to Name the Ballot-You cannot remove a candidate’s name from the ballot. I seek AG’s opinion on my interpretation and determine when “designated by the County Secretary” will be established. Do not sign the drawing position proof until this issue is resolved or pointed in another direction. I will keep in touch with you. “
Faulkner said the certification wasn’t for the state, but for vendors with counties to print ballots. The election law passed by the Kentucky General Assembly in 2021 has postponed the deadline earlier than in the past few years, so it’s still enough to get guidance from the Attorney General before sending the final voting proof to the vendor. She said there should be time.
“The law has changed and the deadlines for submissions and lottery have been postponed, significantly reducing the time it takes to submit to vendors,” Faulkner said. “As for certification, we basically fill out based on ballots and about 3 people (clerk’s office) make sure the name is spelled correctly. Capital, junior, senior, middle name initials, they Quotations on whether you are using a nickname and everything that is triple checked to have them handle it when it arrives at the vendor. We have a pretty good time space and KRS, I read that you can’t make changes after (ballot) is specified. So when is it specified? If you haven’t sent anything to the state, is it the day you put it on the paper? (Question) is me (I hope the Secretary of Justice will answer). “
Faulkner said he hopes the issue will be resolved by August.
“We want to be able to say that we’ve processed everything we can, handed it to the (vendor) in sufficient time, pasted it on paper and sent it back so we could see it again. The last thing he wants to do is hurry up in November to get the ballots right, check and recheck. “
“If the mayor is willing to do this in a room full of people right under the security cameras, what can he do in a situation where he’s confident that no one is watching,” Darnell said in his first Facebook post. Stated.
Rogers said last week that he had no plans to respond to Darnell’s accusations at this time, based on the advice of a lawyer, but sent a brief statement on the matter over the weekend.
“Rumors and inaccurate accusations are toxic to the community and I am responsible for providing the following true statement as a result of postings on social media and newspaper articles that question my integrity,” Rogers said. Said in. “A few weeks ago, I was informed that opponents requested a ballot lottery video for a general election at the Courthouse on June 9 in front of many other candidates. Shortly thereafter, I learned of my opponent’s claim on Facebook that I was a “scammer.”
“This is what happened. Calloway County Secretary Antonia Falkner informed us that we would draw in the order in which we submitted the documents. She told me because I first applied to the mayor’s office. She called me to draw. She took the box and looked at the whole process. She saw where to reach the box with her left hand and reached out to the box with her right hand. I numbered with my right hand. I picked up the pill and started taking it out, so I had to drop it, then reach back and pull out the pill and hand it to the clerk. I didn’t reach back to the box and take another numbered pill. It didn’t happen.
“I’ve worked hard to do the right thing for over 50 years. It’s certainly not as important as whether I’m listed first or second on the ballot, but it’s never an advantage. No. I didn’t do anything wrong. This is the first explanation I made and I’m sure Malay voters can’t trust me through this attempt, so I’m going to go further. You can talk about taking care of the city’s business. Faulkner is confident that she will make her decision after considering all the information she has. ”
..