GLASGOW — Barren County Magistrate Chris Steward, currently contesting a primary election for county judge-executive in which he finished third, took issue Tuesday with the county’s recent action to spend $5,000 to rent voting machines for an upcoming special election.

Steward, who was 16 votes shy of Democratic primary winner Michael Hale, contends that 27 absentee votes that were disqualified should have been counted.

A recanvass and a subsequent partial recount of votes in the May primary did not change the result. Second-place finisher Bud Tarry, who lost to Hale by three votes, is no longer challenging the election.

The primary results were upheld by Barren Circuit Judge Phil Patton, and the issue is now before the Kentucky Court of Appeals, where Steward is represented by Bowling Green attorney Matt Baker.

At Tuesday’s Barren County Fiscal Court meeting, Steward criticized the court’s vote to pay Harp Enterprises of Lexington for the rental of the voting machines, which will be used in the July 22 local option election in Cave City to determine whether to allow package liquor sales there.

Steward was one of two magistrates who did not attend the special meeting last month.

Though he admitted that he would probably have voted to spend the money, Steward pointed out that the case under appeal only concerned the contested absentee ballots and none of the county-owned voting machines used in the primary have been ordered impounded.

“That was an unnecessary expenditure and a waste of taxpayers’ money,” Steward said. 

Baker was on the agenda to appear at Tuesday’s meeting but was unable to attend, according to Steward.

Barren County Clerk Joanne London said she acted on the advice of the county board of elections in bringing the request for funding to rent the machines before the Fiscal Court.

London argued that action had to be taken to secure machines while the primary election remains contested.

“We just can’t get an election ready in one week,” London said. “It takes time to get this stuff processed.”

London also produced copies of a letter from Harp president Roger Baird in which Baird said he advised the board of elections not to let anyone have access to the voting machines, not hold elections on the machines used in the contested election and follow the circuit court’s order regarding the recount.

Baird stated in his letter that the data on the machines from the contested election would be erased if the machines were prepared for a new election.

“If that were to happen before a contest is resolved there would be no way to prove anything,” Baird wrote. “It just makes good sense to not tamper with the biggest evidence you have in an election contest – the voting machines.”

Steward said Harp’s advice was motivated by a financial interest, but London countered that Harp, which has contracted with the county for more than 30 years to provide machines, deals with contested and appealed election results frequently.

Magistrate John Benningfield said the Fiscal Court approved the funding as a way to ensure against the uncertainty of what steps the court of appeals may take regarding the challenged election results.

“The election board had to take action, not knowing what the future was going to hold, and in my opinion they took the best action,” Benningfield said.

— Follow courts reporter Justin Story on Twitter at twitter.com/jstorydailynews or visit bgdailynews.com.