Both Candidates Had Illegal Votes

Conecuh County Larry Fluker A judge has ruled in Evergreen's heated mayor's race but not before finding illegal votes for both men.

by Tiffany Craig

Published: Mon, August 24, 2009 - 5:03 pm CST Last Updated: Mon, August 24, 2009 - 5:27 pm CST

The City of Evergreen has a new mayor after a ten month court battle for the seat.

Retired Mobile County Circuit Judge Edward McDermott ruled that Pete Wolff III will be the mayor.

Wolff and incumbent Larry Fluker were separated by just two certified votes in the October run-off. Fluker had 1,028 and Wolff had 1,026.

Fluker claims that the election divided the city down racial lines. Wolff believes that's just a myth.

Judge McDermott found that after months of digging into the case, both men had illegal votes. According to the court finding, Fluker had 31 illegal votes and Wolff had 24.

If you're doing the math, that means Wolff ended up winning the race by 5 votes.

The final (legal) tally

Wolff 1,002
Fluker 997

Wolff says he's ready to run the city. "As we speak, I am officially the mayor. I just haven't been sworn in yet. We'd been waiting on the legal justice system to prevail and it did."

Fluker plans to keep in fighting and will appeal the ruling "I would not have waged a ten month defense in this if I thought I didn't win but i'm confident that I won the election."

Fluker has 14 days to file with the Alabama Supreme Court. He will continue to run the city until all legal options are exhausted.

If you would like to check out the court order released by the Conecuh County Circuit Clerk's office, click here.

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