A Hamilton County commissioner’s campaign has issued a name challenge against his challenger, something that doesn’t happen often, according to the county’s elections administrator.
The Committee to Re-Elect Steve Highlander and Dalton Temple of Hill City Strategies have submitted a challenge against Highlander’s opponent in the upcoming Republican primary. The challenge is due to a hyphen in her name, listed as Donna Christian-Lowe on the Hamilton County Election Commission’s website, which is how it would appear on the May 5 ballot.
The challenge, according to Elections Administrator Scott Allen, says that the hyphen purposefully puts Christian-Lowe ahead of Highlander, R-Harrison, on the ballot alphabetically. If the hyphen is removed, then her name would go below Highlander’s, since it would revert back to using Lowe as the last name.
“I guess when you’re running for reelection, you want any leg up you can get,” Allen said over a phone call, “and being first on the ballot, I guess it’s considered a bonus.”
The Election Commission has set an emergency meeting to hear the challenge Wednesday, since ballots need to be finalized the following weekend, Allen said. It will take four of the commission members to vote that Christian-Lowe’s name is confusing or misleading to change it, according to Tennessee law.