ST. MATTHEWS - The two newly certified winners of Calhoun County School District board seats have to wait until Monday, Nov. 24, before they can be sworn in. That's the deadline for their challengers to file an appeal with the state Election Commission.
The 10-member county commission unanimously certified incumbent Trustee Gary Porth of District 1 and political newcomer Joyce Jones Parrish of District 4 as the election winners about five minutes after convening on Monday.
Although they had both protested the Nov. 4 nonpartisan election results, neither incumbent Trustee Michael Drake of District 4 nor candidate Tommie Glover in District 1 attended the Monday night hearing of the commission. Drake said he arrived 10 minutes late.
Both had cited confusion at the polls in filing protests and seeking new elections.
Thomasine Brice, the county director of elections and voter registration, said Tuesday that the certified election results won't be final until the state appeals deadline is met Monday at noon.
"We'll go through the process," she said. "We want everything to be lined up right and that is the process."
For that same reason, District Superintendent Kenneth Westbury said, the swearing in of Porth and Parrish wouldn't be held Tuesday.
"Right now, we have down the administration of the oath of office and that would be one member," said Westbury, referring to District 3 incumbent Trustee Sandra Tucker, who was unopposed for re-election.
"I talked with Tommie Brice and the people at the state and our attorney. We're better off to wait through the appeals period before swearing in anybody whose election is under protest," he said.
According to the superintendent, state law requires board members to be sworn in one week following certification of the election.
"We've got our attorney working on being sure we're doing everything right. We want to make sure we don't make any decision for the board that's not legal," he said.
In the meantime, Westbury said he expects the board will limit any decision making, "especially if it's anything controversial."
"We don't expect a change," he said. "But we want to let that opportunity (to appeal) pass."
Parrish defeated Drake in District 4 by a vote of 554 to 490. Dr. Ernest "Bucky" Stokes also received 316 votes.
In District 1, Porth had 531 votes to 487 votes for Glover. Also, in the District 1 race were Melody Pedings with 172 votes and Scott Segars with 69 votes.
Upset that he missed the protest hearing, Drake said he arrived 10 minutes late because he thought Glover's appeal would still be going on. But, Glover didn't attend and the District 1 issue was handled quickly.
T&D Government Writer Tucker Lyon can be reached at tlyon@timesanddemocrat.com or by calling 803-533-5545.