State Representative John Rogers is contesting the validity of the Birmingham City Council District 6 race

John Rogers, House Representative and cousin of council contender Shelia Tyson, is contesting the results of the October 6th run-off between his cousin and Carole Smitherman.  He claims that there were 1,400 provisional ballots, ballots are given to voters when there are questions about their eligibility to vote, cast during the election last Tuesday.  He wants them to be counted in the final vote totals for District 6 race. 

Tyson said:

It's a civil right to be able to vote, and if they feel like someone was not given their right then they need to look into it.

Whereas Smitherman is rest assured that she is the winner saying:

"I haven't gotten any kind of notice about a contest, and until I receive notice, I'll just stand still as the winner in District 6... "I'm going to be reserved and cautious in my comments."

However, Birmingham City Clerk's office says there were only 73 cast during the election last Tuesday.  On the other hand the only people who can officiate the election results the Jefferson County Board of Registrars.

Rogers said even if he is unsuccessful in the recount he will write a bill mandating an automatic recount on all election results in which the winner wins by 1 percent or less, and banning split boxes in which a precinct is used for more than one district.

Well, do I blame him? no  On the other hand, he knows that is pointless because we all know some elections as close as this one is too close to call and will likely result in the same winner.  It's always that way when you have this slim margin victories where political agendas of the election officials comes into play and "lose" or allege there aren't such ballots.  Don't worry, Smitherman has slim chance in hell next election cycle unless she step up on her A-game on serving all of the district (half of the 15% of eligible voters voted against her and the rest didn't even feel like voting at all), which I doubt because she has become way too comfortable.