By Billy Davis

A circuit judge has been appointed, and a date has been set, to give William Pride his day in court.

Pride is contesting the August 23 runoff that showed Supervisor Vernice Avant narrowly won re-election as the Democratic nominee.

After canvassing ballot boxes, Pride submitted a Petition for Judicial Review to Circuit Clerk Joe Reid, who forwarded the request to the Mississippi Supreme Court for review.

Chief Justice William Waller appointed Charles Webster, a Coahoma County circuit judge, as “special judge” to oversee the post-election hearing.

The hearing is set for October 31 at the county courthouse in Batesville, said Reid.

Pride is represented by attorney Steven Pittman of Hernando.

With Pride as plaintiff, court documents cite Avant and the Panola County Democratic Executive Committee as defendants.

Pride appealed his election loss to the executive committee, describing allegations of misconduct by poll workers, among other allegations, in a three-page letter. He asked to be declared the winner or for the executive committee to hold a new primary election.

The executive committee responded with a one-sentence response that denied his request. The committee voted unanimously to declare Avant the winner, said chairman Rufus Manley.

Manley said Monday he had been served with a subpoena. He said he could not comment due to the pending court hearing.

Court documents show Avant has also been served with a subpoena to appear in court.

Avant defeated Pride by 73 votes, her narrowest win — and therefore Pride’s narrowest loss — after the pair competed for the supervisor seat in a 2009 special election runoff.

Pride lost to Avant by 141 votes in 2009 and immediately claimed he and poll watchers could document questionable election-day activities.

He mulled challenging those results, too, but decided to forego a challenge, citing a lengthy court fight and his plans to run for the seat again this year.