It appears Criminal Court Judge Lillie Ann Sells, the apparent loser in her re-election bid last Thursday, is not going down without a fight…a court fight!
The Herald-Citizen of Cookeville is reporting that Judge Sells has confirmed that she is planning to file a lawsuit contesting the results of the election.
Final totals district-wide gave her opponent David A. Patterson, an Independent candidate, nine more votes than she received out of more than 40,000 votes cast.
After the votes were counted district wide on Thursday night, Patterson had a six vote lead over Sells, 20,102 to 20,096 but on Friday when the “provisional” ballots were examined in the counties that had them, Patterson had picked up four more votes to one additional vote for Sells increasing Patterson’s lead to nine votes.
The count, apparently as it stands now, is 20,106 for Patterson and 20,097 for Sells
Patterson currently serves as an Assistant District Attorney in the Office of Attorney General William A. ” Bill” Gibson of Cookeville.
According to the Herald Citizen report, Judge Sells said Monday that “she is working with a Nashville attorney in planning a suit seeking a review of the election results. Such a review could result in a recount of the votes.”
The report says “State law allows for a court filing to contest election results, and that would be filed in Chancery Court and reportedly would have to allege some specific reason for seeking a recount.”
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