Comment on Oklahoma Democrats ask DNC to order new state party election

By Carmen FormanStaff writercforman@oklahoman.comMembers of the Oklahoma Democratic Party are calling on the Democratic National Committee to invalidate the results of a June state party election to elect a new party chair. Eight Oklahoma Democrats, including Christine Byrd, who lost the party chair election, sent a letter to the DNC on Monday requesting a new election to select a party leader. Oklahoma Democratic Party chairwoman Alicia Andrews defeated Byrd by 12 votes in an election marred by a tabulation error. The confusion started at the Democrats’ state convention on June 8 when the number of votes cast in the chair election was higher than the number of delegates in attendance combined with the number of proxy votes from people who couldn’t attend the convention. Andrews was officially declared the winner the following day of the convention, although delegates did not revote. The complaint filed with the DNC calls for reconvening the convention to “conduct the new election utilizing a transparent and documentable vote counting process.” Until then, Byrd and the other Democrats are calling for the DNC to issue an injunction suspending Andrews’ power as chair until the challenge is resolved. Neither Andrews nor Byrd returned calls for comment. Andrews is a Tulsa Realtor who was previously involved with the Tulsa County Democrats.Read more on NewsOK.com