Carroll Co. election office named in lawsuit
The Carroll County Office of Elections is one of five county election offices in West Tennessee named in a lawsuit recently filed by Hardin County resident Ben Harmon.
During Thursday night’s meeting of the Carroll County Election Commission, County Administrator of Elections Peg Hamlett advised commission members that Harmon, who intends to run for chancellor of the 24th Judicial District as an independent in the August elections, recently filed the lawsuit in Hardin County Chancery Court.
Harmon claims that the Hardin County administrator of elections gave him incorrect information regarding the deadline for filing the necessary paperwork to get on the ballot, causing him to miss that deadline.
Harmon is seeking a court ruling requiring election offices in Carroll, Hardin, Henry, Benton, and Decatur Counties to put his name on the August ballot.
Hamlett said she was served with the lawsuit on January 8 and immediately contacted Carroll County Attorney Robert Keeton II and County Mayor Joseph Butler.
Hamlett said she will comply with any ruling the court makes in this case.
She also said that she understands how the mistake could have been made and predicted that Harmon will probably win the case and be placed on the ballot.
“I think it will work out just fine,” she said.
Harmon is the son of former Chancellor Ron Harmon.
About a dozen Tennessee county election officials have recently been subpoenaed in a federal lawsuit challenging state elections laws, but Hamlett is not among those who were subpoenaed.
That lawsuit has been filed by the NAACP and the League of Women Voters of Tennessee against Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett challenging a recently passed state law involving voter drives.
