Two Rhea County Commission candidates have filed a petition in Rhea County Chancery Court to strike the names of their opponents from the Aug. 1 General Election ballot, but officials with the Tennessee Division of Elections say that won't fly.

Roy Denton, candidate for the Ninth District commission seat, said Thursday that most of the candidates for county commission and county executive qualified illegally and should have their names stricken from the ballot.

But Brook Thompson, coordinator of the Tennessee Division of Elections, says, as far as his office is concerned, the names will appear on the ballot.

The problem began when Barbara Colbaugh, Rhea County administrator of elections, miscalculated the beginning date when candidates for the General Election could pick up their qualifying petitions and gave them to candidates prior to Feb. 15.

"It was a simple mistake," Colbaugh said. "I just figured the date out wrong. I don't see why other people should be punished for my mistake."

Thompson agrees.

"The petitions should not have been issued prior to Feb. 15, but we're not going to take people off the ballot because of a mistake by the election commission staff," Thompson said Thursday. "These candidates went in good faith to pick up qualifying petitions that they fully believed were proper."

Thompson, who is an attorney, as well as the division's attorneys, agreed that the procedural violation of a relatively new state law should not be allowed to mar the election.

"This is a democracy. When in doubt, let the people decide. The names will stay on the ballot," Thompson said.

But Denton, who filed the petition on behalf of himself and his sister, Tammy D. Lee, who is a candidate for the Fifth District commission seat, said that state law has been broken and that candidates cannot be allowed to benefit from a violation of the law.

More than half of the county commission and county executive candidates and all of Denton's and Lee's competitors picked up their qualifying petitions prior to the Feb. 15 deadline, according to election commission records.

The Rhea County Election Commission certified all the qualifying petitions, including Denton's and Lee's, on May 16. The error may have given some candidates extra time to get signatures on their petitions, but it didn't interfere with Denton's or Lee's qualifying.

Denton filed his Petition for Declaratory Judgement and Injunctive Relief on Thursday in Rhea County Chancery Court. Denton, who regularly represents himself in court, drafted the petition himself and plans to represent himself and his sister. Denton also filed a Fiat with the petition, which he said would force Chancellor Jeffrey Stewart to move the case to the top of the chancery court docket.
Colbaugh is the sole respondent listed on the petition.

Rhea County Attorney Gary Fritts will represent Colbaugh and may get assistance from the Division of Elections' legal staff.

In the petition, Denton cites Tennessee Code Annotated 2-5-102(b)(5) that reads, "Nominating petitions shall not be issued by an administrator, deputy, county election commissioner or employee of the coordinator's office more than ninety (90) days before the qualifying deadline for the office for which the petition is issued."

The petition asks the chancellor to declare the "actions of the Defendant to be improper and unlawful and to declare all candidates illegally qualified to be declared ineligible to run for the various positions for which they illegally qualify, specifically candidates for the 5th and 9th Districts for Rhea County Commissioner."

John Carpenter can be reached at jcarpenter@xtn.net.