Did officials disrespect democratic ideals?

While we give a gracious thumbs up congratulations to Linda Parrish on her April 7 election as clerk of the Madison County Circuit Court, we give a thumbs down to how the special election itself was conducted, being quick to add that Parrish herself had no role whatsoever in the problems with the election.

It was too rushed. Candidates had only about a month to campaign, far less time than would usually be the case. Granted, the judge setting the time of the special election was apparently hindered by guidelines saying it had to be conducted “promptly,” but the problem here is what exactly does “promptly” mean? While we’re not legal scholars, we have not heard any official public explanation of why having it as part of the November general election – as many in the community had proposed — would not have been “prompt” enough.

For special elections, absentee voting is supposed to begin 30 days beforehand or as soon as possible, Madison County Registrar Diana Eanes told The Eagle in a January interview. “Due to the short timeline, that’s not going to happen,” she said then in reference to the 30 days. Again, troubling “wiggle words” – “or as soon as possible.” With less than 30 days, did absentee voters have enough time?

Even if the letter of the law has been followed here, and we do believe that it has, what about the spirit of the law? Shouldn’t it have somehow been arranged to give these absentee voters their 30 days? Again, is democracy being served by this sort of rushed affair?

There are other clouds hovering over this election. The Eagle Tuesday night tried to obtain – and was denied —  a figure on the number of write-in votes received by clerk candidate Jennifer Weakley. While we were given the total number of write-in votes – 242 – officials would not say how many of these were for Weakley. “We’re not going to give that to you tonight,” said Madison County Electoral Board Secretary Tommy Tanner. Reminded that voters would want to – on a timely basis – have some sense of how many votes a candidate received in the election, Tanner held firm, saying he would not give the number out Tuesday night – not that he could not.

We understand that the results released the night of an election are “unofficial,” however, it is customary to release preliminary ones then or at least give some sort of legitimate explanation why they are not being released. This is true whether the candidates are Barack Obama and John McCain or Linda Parrish, Jennifer Weakley and Andrew Wynham.

It is good that there is now officially a new clerk of the Madison County Circuit Court. But this election leaves us with the nagging question — were officials in this election as respectful of our democratic ideals as they could have – and should have — been?