The Tate County Democratic Election Committee is crying foul play with the Senatobia Municipal Primary Elections concerning the Ward 3 Alderman race after being blocked from examining the ballot box resulting in certification by only two members of the Tate County Election Commission who happened to be Republicans.
In the Tuesday, April 1, Primary Elections, Senatobia Ward 3 incumbent Alderman Allen “Vashaun” Tanksley faced challenger Michael Cathey for the Democratic nomination to the General Election on Tuesday, June 3.
According to the 2025 Municipal Elections Handbook published by the Mississippi Secretary of State’s Office, during a primary election the Municipal Party Executive Committee shall meet no later than one week from the day of the primary election to receive and canvass the returns, which includes accepting and rejecting affidavit ballots.
However, the Democratic Committee from Tate County were blocked from reviewing the ballot box within the one week timeframe.
According to the Committee, Senatobia Municipal Clerk Katie Harbin informed the committee that they had no authority to review or certify the results, but in an email sent by Harbin to the committee on Tuesday, April 8, 2025 at 7:09 p.m., she requested the committee to certify the party nominations to the General election.
The email states as follows:
“Good afternoon! I'm attaching the Results from our 2025 Primary Election held on April 1, 2025. Please send or bring by something from your committee certifying your party nominations to the General Election, based on the Primary Election results. Please have this done as soon as possible.”
However, prior to certifying the results, the duties of the Executive Committee include having access to and review the ballot box.
In the Town of Coldwater, the same Democratic Executive Committee had access to the town’s ballot boxes. After reviewing the results, the committee certified Coldwater’s results.
This is in a stark contrast to the City of Senatobia’s certification by the Republican Election Commissioners, Mary Claire McClure and Les Young on Friday, April 11.
Lone Democrat Commissioner Charles Wright said he received a phone call from Senatobia City Hall that same Friday around 4:48 p.m. He said when he returned the call, he was informed the call was to tell him he had a check ready for him to pick up. Later, Wright said he found out the results had been certified by the other commissioners without his knowing.
However, according to the Secretary of State’s office, during a Primary Election, the Executive Committee of each party has the power to certify elections results. Commissioners are utilized during General Elections.
In fact, the Democratic Executive Committee entered into a contract with the City of Senatobia dated for January of 2025.
The Democratic contract clearly states the following:
“…the City of Senatobia and the Senatobia City Clerk will assume a support role to the Tate County Democratic Executive Committees and at no time will they usurp the responsibilities of the Tate County Democratic Executive Committee…”
A copy of the complete contract is attached signed by Temporary Chairman of the Democratic Executive Committee Carolyn Shead, Senatobia Mayor Greg Graves and Harbin.
Sources said on Wednesday, April 9, the Committee submitted a letter (see attached) requesting to review the ballot boxes after verbal and in-person requests went unanswered. The letter was signed by Jada Mayer at 3:31 p.m. showing the document had been received at Senatobia City Hall. However, the committee was informed that Harbin was out-of-town at a training and would not be returning until Friday.
The Deputy Clerk Francis Johnson did not supervise the ballot box examination even though according to Mississippi Code § 21-15-23 a city can appoint one or more deputy city clerks who have all the power and authority of the city clerk.
According to the state rules and regulations, anytime a candidate requests to review the ballot boxes the other candidates must be notified. Cathey said he tried to reach Tanksley by text and phone calls, all of which were ignored. Cathey then went to Tanksley’s home to inform him in person, but according to Cathey, as he was standing in Tanksley’s yard, when Tanksley got in his vehicle and drove away in a suggestion he was ignoring Cathey.
Cathey then purchased a certified letter and emailed Tanksley that he wanted to review the ballot boxes. The state requires at least two forms of notification to the other candidate. Both the certified letter and the email are acceptable forms of notification according to the Secretary of State’s guidelines.
Cathey then approached Harbin with a request to review the box on Friday, April 11; however, Harbin informed Cathey that since he submitted the request afterhours, the three day time allotment of the request would not begin until Monday, April 14.
Cathey was finally allowed to examine the ballot boxes on Thursday, April 17. Cathey made a request to review not only the boxes and the tally list, but also the poll book. This is a common practice to include the poll books in an examination according to sources across the state.
Harbin informed Cathey he would not have access to the poll book.
According to the Secretary of State’s office, once a candidate begins a ballot box examination, he or she must continue from day to day until the examination is completed.
Cathey will be under a time constraint because Senatobia City Hall will be closed in observance of Good Friday on April 18.
State law requires any challenges to the primary election be filed by Monday, April 21.
Cathey said when he began the examination Deputy Clerk Johnson told him it was a waste of taxpayer dollars for him to review the ballots.
Tate Record reached out to Harbin and Graves, Wednesday, April 16, but did not receive answers to questions as of press time.
