WEST POINT — A West Point alderman is suing in federal court to block his loss in a primary election.
Jasper Pittman, the incumbent alderman in West Point’s Ward 5, missed forcing a Democratic primary runoff against Gary Dedeaux by one vote, according to final tallies.
Pittman alleges in a lawsuit filed Friday that the body that ran the election had no authority, and demands either a runoff against Dedeaux or a new election. The suit claims there was no properly constituted city Democratic Executive Committee, and thus the purported head of that committee had no power to enlist the municipal election commission to run the Democratic primary.
Pittman says some absentee and affidavit votes were improperly counted for Dedeaux, while absentee and affidavit ballots for Pittman and third candidate were improperly discarded.
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