Man’s petition to run in election panel race denied
Published 5:00 am Thursday, September 18, 2008
The Lincoln County Board of Supervisors on Monday denied a lastminute petition from a citizen looking to run for a seat on thecounty election commission.
The board voted unanimously not to allow the petition of LincolnCounty Republican Party member Stan Winborne after supervisors wereinformed that although his name appeared on the signature line -with his approval – he was not the signee.
Board attorney Bob Allen said since the petition called for theapplicant’s “signature” and not simply the applicant’s “name,”Winborne’s document was insufficient.
“Signature of the candidate means just that – signature of thecandidate,” Allen said. “I could not find in the statute thatsomeone can sign it for you. It’s an odd situation.”
When contacted, Winborne said his wife had signed his name whenthe petition was submitted to the circuit clerk’s office on Sept.5.
Lincoln County Circuit Clerk Terry Lynn Watkins discovered thefalse signature when Winborne’s fellow party members turned hispetition in five minutes before the 5 p.m. qualifying deadline onFriday, Sept 5. Winborne was seeking to run for the District Fourseat on the commission.
Watkins, who has processed a great deal of paperwork forWinborne before, recognized the odd handwriting.
“[Winborne] has had to sign off on papers for the RepublicanParty before, and I looked at the petition and thought, ‘That’s notStan’s signature,'” she said.
Watkins immediately contacted Winborne – who was away inBirmingham, Ala., on a job for his company, Ductz Air Professionals- and he confirmed that he had not signed the petition himself.Winborne said he had to fill in for an employee during Gustav andmake the trip to Birmingham himself, thus missing the qualifyingdeadline.
Watkins said Winborne inquired as to whether the deadline wouldbe extended because of Hurricane Gustav, but the LincolnCounty-Brookhaven Government Complex did not close a full day forthe storm. Winborne was hoping for an additional day to return toBrookhaven and sign the document.
Watkins said she thought the issue was “moot” when Winborneadmitted to not having signed the document, but Winborne’sRepublican Party associates called the Mississippi Secretary ofState’s office for clarification, he said.
The secretary’s office referred the decision back to thesupervisors, who shot down the petition on a vote of 4-0, withboard president the Rev. Jerry Wilson absent.
“It ought to be thrown out because it didn’t follow the law,”said District Two Supervisor Bobby J. Watts.
Winborne, though disappointed, agreed with Watts.
“If that’s the way the statute reads, then that’s the way itreads,” Winborne said. “The rule of law is what has to be followed,and if that’s the way the statute reads then that’s the way itneeds to be done. It just didn’t work out for us this time.”
Winborne said his biggest disappointment was letting down the 71county residents who signed the petition in support of hiscandidacy.
“I just hate that it didn’t work out for us,” he said. “A littlebetter preparation on our part would have been good.”