Hamilton County election results certified

Hamilton County election commissioners met Wednesday and certified the results of the Aug. 2 election.

Election staff said 57,053 of the county’s 198,864 registered voters cast ballots, including 21,058 early votes. That’s about the same percentage as the 2014 midterms.

This vote included 43 provisional ballots for voters affected by some misdrawn district lines. Staff watched the provisional voting at two precincts and then observed the manual count to make sure all the votes were cast and counted correctly.

Elections Administrator Kerry Steelman said the election cost right at $308,000. That includes the expense of municipal elections in Lookout Mountain ($3,000) and Signal Mountain ($3,500), which will be reimbursed.

It also includes most of the costs for a Nashville attorney who represented the election commission in the Tennessee Democratic Party’s lawsuit in the House District 26 race. That lawsuit has been dismissed and refiled in Hamilton County and a local attorney retained.

Commissioners also heard from Christopher Dahl, an independent candidate who challenged and lost to 4th District County Commissioner Warren Mackey.

Dahl said he intends to challenge the election in court based on low voter turnout and his claim that Mackey had not lived in the district in six years. He was presenting his issues at the election commission to make sure he had used all of his administrative remedies before going to court.

Mackey said Wednesday afternoon he had gone by the election commission that morning with documents proving his residency.

“Rest assured, I live in the district, period,” Mackey said.

“I don’t know what he’s thinking,” he added. “With [Mackey winning] 83 percent of the vote, if it was me, I’d just call it a day.”

The election commission is scheduled to meet Sept. 19 to approve the ballot for the Nov. 6 general election.