Karl Banks maintains office after election challenge victory in court

Karl Banks maintains office after election challenge victory in court

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Karl Banks will remain as the District 4 representative on Madison County's Board of Supervisors after a special judge appointed in an election challenge ruled in his favor Thursday.

Banks, a Democrat, defeated Republican Jim Harreld in November 2019 by 57 votes, to which Harreld challenged.

Special Circuit Judge Lamar Pickard ruled that the evidence presented by Harreld was insufficient to order a new election.

"The court finds that the evidence presented by Mr. Harreld is insufficient to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that enough illegal votes, if any, were cast for Mr. Banks during the election to change the outcome," it said.

Harreld had asked the court to award him the victory or order a new election. He argued that at least 100 voters cast ballots in the wrong district, that 25 people voted using a Tougaloo College address that did not live in the county, and that 43 more did not reside within District 4.

But Pickard disagreed with each of the assertions in Harreld's petition and dismissed most of the evidence he provided as insufficient.

"There is simply no reason to suspect that the remaining ballots questioned by Harreld were cast in such a way as to require their disqualification," the ruling said. "Without question, there are certainly no sufficient questions raised to cast doubt on the will of the voters in the election."



Harreld could not immediately be reached for comment.

Banks said Thursday afternoon he was relieved by the ruling, but felt all along that he had the better case.

"I think more than anything else, I'm just glad to have this behind us," he said. "I can now just focus on doing my job working for the people, trying to fix some problems in District 4."






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