The loser of an April primary runoff election for Justice of the Peace in Tarrant County is alleging voter fraud and contesting the election.

Charlotte Hogan-Price was defeated by Lisa Woodard by 136 votes on April 13. Hogan-Price was ahead in both early voting and election day tallies, but she lost the mail-in balloting by an almost 2:1 margin.

Hogan-Price also won the March primary by 129 votes in a four-person race, which was not enough to avoid the runoff in a race that became contentious.

She has filed a lawsuit in the 153rd District Court in Tarrant County. A trial date of May 26 has been set.

Hogan-Price, a probate auditor in Tarrant County, came into the Tarrant County Elections office shortly after the runoff and examined mail-in ballots, county elections administrator Steve Raborn said.

The candidate and her lawyer, Dan Wyde of Dallas, have subpoenaed a number of other records relating to the election, Raborn added. Polling books, rejected ballots and a number of other items were requested in the subpoena.

Raborn, who served as elections administrator in Fort Bend County before coming to Tarrant four years ago, has seen elections in which a candidate wins both the election day and early voting tallies but loses the mail-in portion.

“I can’t say it is common,” Raborn said. “But sometimes you see a heavier turnout for one candidate in the mail-in. Sometimes one candidate is better at getting seniors to vote. And sometimes a candidate can just sign up and get more people to vote for them by mail, which is a legitimate campaign tactic.”

Contact Steve Miller at 832-303-9420 or stevemiller@texaswatchdog.org.