Bill Veitch files lawsuit to stop ballot printing for primary ballots

Presiding Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Joseph Boohaker issued a restraining order on Friday that halted printing of June 5 primary ballots in the Bessemer Cutoff.

The printing was stopped due to a lawsuit that Bill Veitch, a Republican candidate for the Birmingham division of Jefferson County, filed on Friday afternoon.

“Without your knowledge and consent someone in Birmingham decided your cut-off votes don’t matter. Every single voter in the cut-off from Hoover, McCalla, Hueytown, Bessemer, Midfield and Brighton matter to me and your voice should be heard,” Veitch said in a facebook post on Friday.

In the lawsuit, Veitch argues that all voters in Jefferson County should be allowed to vote in the primary, not just those who live in the Birmingham division.

He then asked that a judge declare a 1953 law unconstitutional, that Jefferson County Probate Judge Alan King put the names of all candidates in the upcoming primary for District Attorney on ballots for both the Birmingham and divisions, and called for the restraining order that halted the ballot printing.

According to AL.com, “Veitch lives in the Bessemer Cutoff, which means if the names of the District Attorney candidates were left off the ballot, he couldn’t vote for himself in the Republican Primary. It also means Democrats in the Bessemer division couldn’t vote for the district attorney candidates in Birmingham in their primary.”

“The Bessemer District Attorney is listed in the state code as an assistant,” Veitch told AL.com. “The district attorney for the Birmingham division, however, has authority over all the county. ‘If that’s true that the (Birmingham) district attorney has jurisdiction all over the county shouldn’t they (Bessemer voters) be allowed to vote on those who have jurisdiction over all of them?”

Veitch will face Mike Anderton in the Republican primary on June 5. The winner will then face Danny Carr, Raymond L. Johnson, or Jr. Carr in a a November special election to determine who will fill the seat.

The full text of the lawsuit can be found below:

Bill Veitch lawsuit uploaded by KentFaulk on Scribd