Saga in Okolona Town Marshal’s race takes another turn

OKOLONA, Miss. (WCBI)- New developments are continuing to emerge in the on-going saga surrounding the Okolona Town Marshal’s race.

Tommie Lee Ivy Sr. currently sits in that position.

However, there could potentially be another change in leadership.

In the Democratic primary elections, Ivy and William Randle were the two candidates running for the position.

However, after a judge ruled errors were made during the election, Randle’s attorney, Walter Zinn Jr., said the judge threw out the mishandled votes and also removed Randle’s name from the race.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court reversed that judge’s decision saying Randle’s name should have never been taken off the ballot.

“This is a small celebration,” said Zinn. “What I want to do is to impart upon the voters of Okolona that there will be a special election for town Marshal. Despite him being removed from office unlawfully, despite a year of having to find other ways to support his family, even being removed from being a law enforcement officer which is something that he loves, of course I’m very excited to see him being vindicated.”

The drama surrounding this situation dates back to 2017 when Randle defeated Ivy by a single vote in the Democratic primary.

Ivy believed some of the ballots were mishandled, and as a result, he filed a lawsuit against the Democratic Executive Committee and Randle.

In court, Circuit Judge Barry Ford ruled that some of the votes cast in Randle’s favor were indeed unlawful and should not have counted.

However, instead of calling a new special election, Zinn said Ford withdrew Randle’s name from the ballots altogether.

“We knew then that the law wasn’t being followed as to the outcome of that determination by the judge, so within the rights that Mr. Randall had we sought the process for an appeal.”

After the judge issued the ruling, the only candidates left in the election were Ivy Sr. and his son Tommy Ivy Jr. who ran as an independent.

Ivy Jr. later dropped out of the race, leaving his father as the lone candidate for the position.

However, the Supreme Court’s ruling said Randle wasn’t given a fair shot to win the seat.

“Errors did occur during the primary, so factually he did make the right determination on counting the votes,” Zinn explained. “After counting the votes, he made the mistake or error of removing Mr. Randle from running. What he should’ve done is said there is enough errors or problems in the election to overturn it, meaning essentially throw it out and do it again. Instead of throwing it out and doing it again, he threw it out and told Mr. Ivy he could go to the general election and that’s where the error was and that’s where the Supreme Court had agreed with us.”

WCBI reached out to Ivy’s attorney for comment, but have yet to hear back from him.

Despite the Supreme Court issuing the ruling, it can not call for the special election to take place, it’ll have to be called by Judge Ford.

So far, Zinn said he has not been told when the judge will make that announcement.