Harrison County Commission denies Del. Laura Kimble’s primary election challenge

The Harrison County Commission on Wednesday voted to deny Del. Laura Kimble’s challenge of the primary election results for House of Delegates District 71. 

The commission affirmed that Kimble’s opponent Tim McNeely won the Republican nomination over Kimble, R-Harrison, according to a news release from McNeely.

Kimble challenged the results after losing to McNeely by just six votes, garnering 682 votes to McNeely’s 688. 

“I want to thank the Harrison County Commissioners for their thoughtful consideration of this matter and for the professionalism and integrity they demonstrated throughout the process,” McNeely said in a statement Wednesday. 

“I also want to express my sincere appreciation to Harrison County Clerk John Spires, his staff, our poll workers, and everyone who worked so diligently to conduct a fair, secure, and accurate election,” he said. “Their commitment to protecting the integrity of our elections deserves our respect and gratitude, and they have my complete confidence. Our community is fortunate to have such dedicated public servants.”

Kimble filed the challenge June 5 with McNeely and the Harrison County Commission. According to the filing “there are discrepancies between the voter history and the precinct results indicating that more Republican ballots were counted than the number of registered Republicans voting” in multiple precincts in the 71st district. 

“Because I requested the recount … I still had that window of time to ask these questions then to contest the election,” Kimble said at the time.

Kimble stressed that she wasn’t blaming poll workers for possible errors and said she thought paper ballots could have prevented potential errors in distributing ballots.

Kimble did not respond to a request for comment about Harrison County’s vote on Wednesday. 

McNeely is the former Fairmont State University athletic director. He will face Democratic challenger Robert Garcia, brother of current House member Del. Rick Garcia, D-Marion, in the general election in November.

“Now, it’s time to look ahead,” McNeely said in the release. “In just 34 days, students across Harrison County will return to the classroom. In 51 days, our community will come together to celebrate the Italian Heritage Festival, one of our state’s great traditions. And in 111 days, voters will once again have the opportunity to shape the future of our community and our state.”