Judge denies candidate request for election 're-do'

By:Sylvia Schon, Daily Star Staff Writer
March 19, 2004

      AMITE - A 21st Judicial District judge ruled Thursday against an effort to re-do the March 9 Independence Town Council election.
      But candidate Dale Brouillette is still reviewing his appeal options, which would have to be filed in the next two days.

      "I don't know yet. I'm kind of leaning right now not to because of the fact that the two major factors are the review page and state law that says you don't have to have a review page. That kind of smokes that one," Brouillette said this morning.

      His attorney, Johnny Anzalone, is reviewing Westlaw, however, to see if there are any other interpretations of the law.

      "The last avenue is that if there is no state law specifically stating that you have to have a review page, then let's go after changing the law. Let's make a new law," Brouillette said.

Brouillette, who ended up six votes out of the running for the five "at large" Town Council seats, filed suit to overturn the election primarily because the computer voting machine allowed voters to review and possibly correct their choices for every other office on the ballot except the Town Council race before the ballot was cast.

      District Judge Zoey Waguespack, however, determined that state law does not mandate a "review." She also commented that Brouillette raised some good points.

      "There is something that's called the 'spirit of the law.' If you've always been able to review your ballot at one time, we feel that in the spirit of the law, we should have been able to do it this time as well," Brouillette said.

      At the center of the dispute is the performance of the relatively new computer voting machines now in use in Tangipahoa and Ascension parishes but nowhere else in the state.

      "The point I would like to make is - and I've been voting for 36 years - it's always an ascending thing, and the final thing I got to see was my final choice before I say, 'Hey, I'm ready to vote.' This election, however, the final page only showed me half of my review," Brouillette said. "If I had been pre-warned I would only get to see half of that this election it would be different. But nobody knew. It caught everybody by surprise. I don't even think the clerk of court knew that the final page would only give you a number. The thing about it is this election was different than a normal election."

      ES & S, the company that sold the computer voting machines to the state, is currently working on changing the software so that the next at large election will allow voters to review all of their choices, according to Brouillette.     

      He said he is also considering filing suit against ES & S because he believes it is a discrimination issue that the final page showed half the candidates.

      "We didn't' lose. We brought some attention to some issues that need to be addressed. So we didn't lose," he said.