Failed Senate hopeful seeks reimbursement

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Dec 11, 2004

Write-in candidate Cody Robert Judy is seeking a do-over in his recently failed bid for U.S. Senate.

In a lawsuit filed this week in U.S. District Court, Judy alleges the election process was unfair and demands reimbursement of the approximately $100,000 he spent on his campaign, as well as a rematch of the contest.

The suit names Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, who handily won re- election last month, and state elections officials.

Judy sought the same relief in a lawsuit filed shortly after the Nov. 2 election. The petition, however, was dismissed last month because Judy failed to properly serve the defendants.

Among Judy's complaints in Monday's filings are: Elections officials failed to provide writing utensils in voting booths for those wishing to write in a candidate, officials did not post a list of registered write-in candidates inside the voting booth and the write-in section on Salt Lake County ballots were detached from the punch cards.

Judy served time in prison for his conviction of first-degree felony aggravated burglary after he stormed a 1993 fireside in the Brigham Young University Marriott Center with a bogus bomb and threatened Elder Howard W. Hunter, who was then president of the Quorum of the Twelve of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.