The Arkansas Supreme Court dismissed the appeal from a failed southeast Arkansas mayoral candidate seeking to get his name in a runoff election.
On Thursday, the court dismissed the appeal from Floyd Gray -- who finished third out of four candidates in Dermott's Nov. 4, 2014, mayoral election -- saying that the legal challenge was moot.
In the Nov. 4 election, Gray received 219 votes, while Clinton Hampton got 241 votes and Mary Thomas-Barnes got 240 votes. The fourth-place finisher, Lucan Hargraves, won 149 votes.
With no majority, Thomas-Barnes and Hampton were scheduled for a Nov. 25, 2014, runoff election. On Nov. 24, Gray filed a complaint in Chicot County Circuit Court asking for an injunction in the election.
Gray argued that Thomas-Barnes was a convicted felon and ineligible to run as mayor. Gray asked the lower court to void Thomas-Barnes' candidacy and declare Gray the runner-up in the election, thereby securing him a position in the runoff.
Circuit Judge Kenneth Johnson issued an injunction Nov. 24 that allowed the election to go forward but also kept the Chicot County Election Commission from tabulating the runoff votes.
Attorneys from the Chicot County Election Commission argued that since Gray filed his suit after the general election, the complaint had to speak to how that election was handled, not the candidates involved.
A month later, Johnson called his order "ill considered" and found that Gray's complaint lacked jurisdiction because his case "appears to be an attempt to bring a pre-election challenge by post-election means." Hampton won the election and is the current mayor of Dermott.
Gray appealed, arguing that his Nov. 24 lawsuit was a valid "pre-election" challenge because the runoff was part of the general election.
In Thursday's majority opinion, Associate Justice Karen Baker wrote that the challenge was moot and that since Gray didn't bother to argue that his case was an exception to moot issues that come before the case, the court would side with Johnson's ruling and dismiss Gray's lawsuit.
Chief Justice Howard Brill, joined by Associate Justice Paul Danielson, agreed that the case should be dismissed, but not on the mootness of the case, but because the circuit court lacked jurisdiction over such a challenge.
NW News on 11/22/2015