Staff file photo by John Rawlston/Chattanooga Times Free Press - Aug 9, 2012 Marilyn Campbell Rodman, the incumbent mayor in the Nov. 8, 2016, municipal election, is challenging the outcome of the race won by challenger David Sampley.The former mayor of Monteagle, Tenn., is contesting Nov. 8 election results that left her about 17 votes behind challenger David Sampley.
Marilyn Campbell-Rodman, who served six years as mayor before losing her re-election bid, contends that ineligible voters were allowed to cast ballots and she believes a new election is in order.
Rodman said Friday that before the election she asked election commissioners in all three counties that contain part of Monteagle - Franklin, Grundy and Marion - about eligibility issues but was told there would be no problems.
"All of the election commissions (in the three counties) had errors. There was a 17-vote difference between David Sampley and myself. The election commissions have admitted to nine or 10 bad ballots, at least," Rodman said, who is challenging some voters' eligibility based on residency and other issues.
Sampley was certified the winner of the mayoral election, but Rodman said if she successfully challenges the outcome she still will have to discuss with her husband whether to seek the seat again.
"I don't care if I run again or not, but what's right is right," she said Friday. Rodman's formal complaint does not list a number of illegal votes, but she said she believes 23 ineligible ballots were cast.
Tennessee law allows a candidate to contest an election only when the number of illegal votes cast is larger than the difference in the outcome for the top two vote-getters, according to documents filed Nov. 23 in Marion County Chancery Court.
Administrators of elections in Marion and Franklin confirmed Friday they were aware of Rodman's challenge. No one answered the phone at Grundy County's election office, likely because of winter-weather travel problems in Altamont on Friday.
But attorney Billy Gouger, representing Marion County's election office, said all three counties have answered the complaint. All three deny there were enough problem votes to contest the election results.
Grundy County officials admit six people who don't live in the city case ballots in the Monteagle election. Marion County officials admit one voter cast a ballot on a voting machine that should have been cast on a provisional ballot. And Franklin County officials said two voters "were improperly given ballots" for the town'election.
In her complaint, Rodman asks the court to declare the Nov. 8 Monteagle mayoral election null and void and order a new election. She asks for attorney's fees and court costs, and an order for the defendants to "make a full and complete accounting under oath of all of voters allowed to vote and all voters not permitted to vote."
"We're not looking to crucify people, but what's right is right," Rodman said on Friday.
The next step will be to set a date for a hearing for Chancellor Jeffrey Stewart to hear the merits of the case.
Contact staff writer Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6569.