The opinion
Tom Glaze, Justice, concurring. Although this case has tice, getting here, this court has shown its will to decide this election-contest case on its merits rather than dismissing it on the questionable procedural issues offered by the appellees, Crumbly and the St. Francis County Election Commission. The winners are the voters of Arkansas, because they now can be assured that, in future elections, illegal and fraudulent votes can be purged from election results that are proved to be questionable. Today’s decision sets out a clear “road map” by which the integrity of our election system can be assured.
While I fully agree with the court’s opinion, I do not agree that the circuit judge should sit on this case on remand.
For whatever reasons, the Judge failed to expedite this election case even though he was required to do so by law, and was asked to do so repeatedly by Willis’s counsel. It has taken about seven months to reach this stage of the election contest, and the case still must be remanded for further proceedings with no assurance anything different will occur to get this matter resolved. Even though the Judge had this matter pending for the seven-month period, he omitted it from his quarterly report which is required by this court’s Administrative Order No. 3. This court should promptly assign a special judge who has the time and “grit” to bring this case to an end. 1
Willis also requests that the prosecuting attorney, representing the St. Francis County Election Commission, should be disqualified because of a conflict of interest. If that is a real issue, a newly assigned special judge can handle it with dispatch.