[StBernard] Lee Zurik Investigation: Losing St. Bernard candidate plans suit

[Westley Annis]

Lee Zurik Investigation: Losing St. Bernard candidate plans suit
Reported by: Lee Zurik, Anchor/Chief Investigative Reporter Email:
lzurik at fox8tv.net
			
Print Story Published: 11/21 8:57 pm Share Updated: 11/21 11:22 pm 
Chalmette -- A St. Bernard council candidate says he plans to sue over
Saturday's election.

"I want a new, fair election," said candidate Peter Rupp.

Rupp's been working his phone, trying to line up an attorney to fight for a
new election.

"If we can find the proper attorney to do this work, we are going to sue,"
Rupp told FOX 8.

The council district in question starts at the Orleans-St. Bernard line, at
Jackson Barracks. In Saturday's election Rupp lost to the incumbent in
District A, Ray Lauga, by the slimmest of margins.

When you just consider voters who turned out on election day, Rupp got 70
more votes. But in early voting, Ray Lauga got 86 more than his opponent, to
win the election by 16 votes.

Last Monday, we started our series of stories on St. Bernard voters who
don't live in the parish. Now we've isolated our searches on this council
district, and we found about 50 voters who have homestead exemptions outside
St. Bernard.

One example: the third-ranking member of the sheriff's office, Richard
Baumy, and his wife, who have claimed a homestead exemption in St. Tammany
for over a decade but vote in St. Bernard.

"If you look at the records from the early vote, that's where they find the
majority of your homestead exemption votes outside of St. Bernard parish,"
said Rupp.

"How do you know these voters didn't vote for you?" we asked him.

"Well, I don't," Rupp replied. "It's not about whether they voted for me.
It's not about whether they voted for Ray Lauga. It's about the fact that
they voted. My election, my race, unlike everybody else's race, is the only
race where it could possibly matter."

On Saturday, the Wayne Landry campaign had evidence of a homestead exemption
in another parish for 55 voters and challenged them. But the state attorney
general said it was too late to challenge a vote, and the St. Bernard Board
of Election Supervisors voted to allow them.

For much of last week, dueling laws confused leaders around the area. State
law clearly says you must vote where you have a homestead exemption. But a
displaced voter law, passed after Katrina, allowed some voters to stay on
the rolls in their former parish.

Saturday, the attorney general cleared that up, saying that, even with the
displaced voter law, voters shall vote where they have their homestead
exemption. 

"The election code is fairly clear," St. Bernard election supervisor Mike
Bayham told us. "Once you establish a domicile outside the community you've
been displaced from, you are no longer a member of that community."

"And getting a homestead is establishing a domicile?" we asked.

"Right," Bayham confirmed. "The displaced voter law didn't really apply."

So that means dozens of voters who legally may not be able to vote in St.
Bernard parish may have decided a close council race. And it has one
candidate saying that his race was determined by possible fraudulent voters.

"It's not fair that the people from outside of St. Bernard parish were
coming to vote for me, or for Ray," Rupp insisted.

Ray Lauga called Rupp's potential suit a publicity stunt. "He's been
throwing accusations throughout the campaign, and this is more of the same,"
Lauga told FOX 8.