Clerk asks for new county commissioner primary election after learning candidate doesn’t live in district
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ST. ANTHONY — The Fremont County clerk is asking a judge for a new primary election after a candidate ran for office in a district where he does not reside.
Richard Roberson filed to run for county commissioner in District 3, according to Fremont County Clerk Abbie Mace. Two other candidates, Rick Hill and incumbent Jordan Stoddard, ran for the same seat.
“(Roberson) resides in Commissioner District 2 and we failed to verify the exact location of his residence,” Mace said in a statement to EastIdahoNews.com. “We have since learned that because he did not live in Commissioner District 3, he was ineligible to run in that district. Unfortunately, we did not discover this error until after the election.”
Roberson tells EastIdahoNews.com he was originally certified as being in District 3.
“The clerk’s office told me I was in District 3 when I filed my paperwork,” Roberson said. “If I had known I was in (District 2) I would not have run.”
He didn’t find out about the error until after the election when the clerk’s office informed him of the error.
During the primary election last week, Hill received 1,290 votes, Stoddard received 1,172 and Roberson received 313. Although Roberson finished third, he received enough votes that it could have changed the outcome of the election.
Mace filed a petition Thursday in the 7th Judicial District Court asking a judge to void the primary election for District 3 and set a new date with Hill and Stoddard on the ballot.