Alabama GOP rejects primary challenges in two Etowah County House districts

The Alabama Republican Party on Saturday rejected two challenges to Alabama House races in Etowah County, brought after errors led to some voters getting ballots for the wrong races in the May 24 primaries.

The party said in separate emails Saturday evening that challenges in House District 28, won by former Rep. Mack Butler of Rainbow City over incumbent Gil Isbell of Gadsden, and House District 29, won by minister Mark Gidley over Etowah County Commissioner Jamie Grant, had been "declined."

The party did not give reasons for its decisions, done after hearings on Saturday at Balch and Bingham, a law firm in Birmingham.

In separate interviews, Isbell and Grant, who had sought new elections, said they were disappointed.

Grant criticized Alabama Republican Party Chair John Wahl, accusing him of being influenced by elected Republican officials.

"If we’re a party (that runs) our elections with integrity, I think they had a chance to fix an election we know was flawed," Grant said. "John Wahl and the Republican Party failed."

Isbell said he was "extremely disappointed" and said he wanted the next Alabama secretary of state to form an election task force to investigate the problems in the May 24 races and provide fixes.

"I think there just wasn’t enough time to gather true evidence," Isbell said of his case. "We had found 150 people that had gotten wrong ballots. It was a sample of the area. We don’t know how it was split."

Butler said in a message Saturday evening that he was "happy to have this behind me and proud to be the GOP nominee for State House District 28."

"There were some voters misaligned in the district but not nearly enough to impact the outcome of the race," Butler said in the statement. "I am looking forward to returning to Montgomery to represent the people of Etowah County. I am so thankful for all the support we had during this process."

Gidley in a message said, "First, let me state how I appreciate the great people of District 29 choosing me as the Republican nominee for representative.

"While there were some misalignments in the district, this was not enough to change the outcome of the election," he said. "I am so glad to put this behind us, and I am looking forward to serving as the next representative for District 29."

Neither Butler nor Gidley will face Democratic opposition in the November general election.

A message seeking comment from Wahl was left with an Alabama Republican Party spokeswoman on Saturday.

The party also heard a challenge to the primary result in Senate District 27, comprising Lee, Tallapoosa and Russell counties. Auburn City Councilman Jay Hovey defeated incumbent Sen. Tom Whatley of Auburn by a single vote out of 17,000 cast. Whatley challenged the results. A decision in that challenge had not been announced as of Saturday evening.

The May 24 Republican primaries for state House in two of Etowah County's three districts were close. In House District 28, Butler defeated Isbell by 269 votes (52% to 48%). In House District 29, Gidley defeated Grant by 144 votes (51% to 49%).

But some voters told election officials that their ballots did not have their proper races. Secretary of State John Merrill and the Etowah County Probate Judge issued a joint statement saying that voter information updates that were supposed to take place after redistricting — and were supposed to be corrected — had not been corrected. The errors extended to two county commission races in the district.

It was unclear how many voters were affected.

Neither Isbell nor Grant said they planned to pursue legal action, but Grant said Wahl and the Republican Party "should never run on election integrity again."

Isbell said he would "abide" by the decision, saying it was about human error, not fraud or malfeasance.

"When you have the next Census (and) the redistricting done, hopefully in 2030 this will not happen again," Isbell said. "Unfortunately, we've learned a lot from this."

Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Brian Lyman at 334-240-0185 or blyman@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Alabama GOP rejects primary challenges in two Etowah County House districts