Fite appeals election ineligibility ruling

The attorney for Tom Fite has filed motions with the Arkansas Supreme Court seeking to keep Fite on the November ballot and to undo a declaration by Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Collins Kilgore that Fite is ineligible to hold public office.

Fite (R) and Leslee Milam Post (D) were after the Arkansas House seat opened with the term-limited Rep. Beverly Pyle, R-Cedarville, unable to seek re-election.

Fite’s legal challenge to his ballot status came from Michael Grulkey, who filed a lawsuit in Pulaski County Circuit Court saying Fite has a 1984 criminal conviction that makes him ineligible for election. Fite faced a federal jury trial in February 1984 on several counts of medicaid fraud and bribery. The trial, held in the Eastern District of Arkansas, ended in a mistrial, and Fite eventually pleaded guilty to a lesser misdemeanor charge and was given three years probation.

Fort Smith attorney Brian Meadors represented Grulkey, and Greg Almand represented Fite.

Kilgore, in a 3-page ruling issued Wednesday (Oct. 27), said the “uncontroverted” evidence is clearly against Fite.

“The plain language of the Constitution of the State of Arkansas prohibits one convicted of bribery from holding public office, and Mr. Fite has been convicted of aiding and abetting medicaid bribery,” Kilgore noted in the ruling.

Kilgore ordered that Fite’s name be excluded from election ballots and ordered election officials to not count the votes for Fite.

Meadors said Wednesday he hopes election officials in Franklin and Crawford counties will not make public the number of votes Fite receives.

“The Judge has order that they not be counted. That is the court’s order. It’s my understanding that there might be some logistical issues, that they can’t tell the electronic machines to not count the votes. I would be agreeable if they simply pull the numbers from the machine, but not make those public,” Meadors said.

Fite and his attorney don’t believe the language is as plain as Kilgore says. They also say in their petition for Writ of Prohibition that the summons to notify Fite of the Pulaski County court hearing was improperly served. The writ and a second filing says its impossible to accomplish many aspects of Kilgore’s ruling, such as removing Fite’s name from the ballot and not counting votes for Fite.

“Now the Circuit Court of Pulaski County would disenfranchise the remaining voters of House District 83 who might want to vote for Mr. Fite, or for a Republican candidate. There is no time to replace Mr. Fite on the ballot with another qualified candidate at this point. Mr Fite’s opponent will effectively be allowed to run unopposed, gaining office by nefarious means unbecoming to any truly democratic process,” Almand noted in the writ.

It is unclear if the Arkansas Supreme Court will rule on the appeal prior to Tuesday.