House committee set to decide election
Four Republicans and one Democrat in the House will hear the appeal of Mark Tullos, who lost a drawing of straws to Rep. Bo Eaton after the two tied in the Nov. 3 election.
A spokesman for House Speaker Philip Gunn said the committee could meet as early as this week. Gunn selected the five members from each of the state's old five congressional districts, as required by state law.
The five committee members are state Reps. Jim Beckett, R-Bruce; Linda Coleman, D-Mount Bayou; Mark Baker, R-Brandon; Bill Denny, R-Jackson; and Richard Bennett, R-Long Beach.
Nathan Wells, Gunn's chief of staff, said Monday the speaker won't make any comments about the election challenge, with the committee having to decide the outcome.
"I don't know the exact time line, but I would expect them to meet very soon," Wells said.
Baker, who was named chairman of the House committee, said Monday that the committee will meet at 10 a.m. Tuesday to organize and go over rules. He said the committee will formally meet the first day of the 2016 Legislature, which begins Jan. 5.
"It's way too early to get into anything," Baker said of details.
Eaton and Tullos tied at 4,589 votes in the final tally from the Nov. 3 general election. On Nov. 20, per state law, the two drew straws under the supervision of the governor and secretary of state to break the tie.
Eaton, D-Taylorsville, who has held the House District 79 seat for Smith and Jasper counties for 19 years, drew the long straw and was declared the winner before a throng of media, including national news outlets.
Tullos said Smith County election officials met in secret and counted nine affidavit ballots they had previously rejected, bringing about the tie.
A Tullos victory would give Republicans a three-fifths supermajority in the House and allow the Republican caucus to steamroll Democrats on tax, revenue and other bills and generally cement the dominance of the GOP, which took a House majority in 2011 for the first time in more than 130 years.
Eaton said before the drawing of straws that he'd live with the results of the game of chance. But Tullos had said he likely would not accept such a loss and had filed an appeal with the state House even before the straws were drawn.
By state law, the full 122-member House has the final say on disputed races for that chamber.
Tullos' petition says that on Nov. 3 — election night — Smith County election commissioners canvassed and counted all but four affidavit ballots, those that were pending voters coming back within five days to show photo identification. These results had Tullos with a lead of six votes, and with only the four affidavits pending, that appeared to be a victory.
But Tullos says that election officials on Nov. 9, without notifying the candidates, met and decided to count nine affidavit ballots that had previously been rejected, resulting in a tie. He said the affidavit envelopes had been opened, making it impossible to tell whether the ballots had been properly cast.
Contact Jimmie E. Gates at (601) 961-7212 or jgates@jackson.gannett.com. Follow @jgatesnews on Twitter.