Ex-TV Judge, Eight More Claim Election Fraud

MEMPHIS (CN) - A former TV judge and other losing candidates claim in court that a county election commission allowed "gross failure or manipulation" of its electronic voting machines, disenfranchising black voters and costing Democrats elections.

Joseph Brown aka Judge Joe Brown and eight others sued the Shelby County Election Commission and commissioners in the Chancery Court on Sept. 2.

Brown, a former Shelby County Criminal Court judge, also starred in the syndicated "Judge Joe Brown" TV show, which ran from 1998 to 2013.

Brown et al. claim that hackers "siphoned" votes away from them in the Aug. 7 general election. They want a recount.

The problem stems from the Diebold voting machines, the plaintiffs say. They claim that the particular voting system is not used anywhere in the United States except Shelby County and one other Tennessee county.

"Plaintiffs allege that the system has long been tainted through fraudulent programming introduced into the systems by hackers conspiring with the defendants and it takes but seconds to reactive or modify the taint," the complaint states.

The pro se plaintiffs claim that the outdated computer system in the voting machines is to blame for years of shady elections in the Memphis area.

"Percentage of the votes cast can be fixed in favor specified candidates. Plaintiffs note the similar percentages of the votes received by all of the Republican candidates claiming victory in the last election and the percent correlation with the election results in both 2012 and 2010," the complaint states. "Plaintiffs specifically note the August 2010 election where several thousand more votes were recorded as cast than there were voters recorded as voting."

Brown et al. want an investigation and a recount, and/or the election results set aside.

Brown lost his bid for Shelby County District Attorney General by 44,000 votes to incumbent Amy Weirich, who was re-elected to an 8-year term. Fellow plaintiffs Mozella Ross, Kenya Brooks, Alicia Howard, J. Nathan Toney and Kim Sims lost their judicial elections .

The remaining three plaintiffs fared no better. Doris Deberry-Bradshaw fell short on votes for a state House seat, while Henri Brooks and Wanda Halbert lost their races for Juvenile Court Clerk and Criminal Court Clerk.

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