Following the withdrawal of several sororities from an official motion to intervene in the upcoming Board of Education election contest, two fraternities and a student have continued with the motion.
The University of Alabama chapters of Kappa Delta, Zeta Tau Alpha and Alpha Omicron Pi withdrew after filing with local attorney Robert Prince last week. Prince officially amended the motion Tuesday.
Kappa Delta headquarters said in an emailed statement Tuesday that they did not approve the local chapter’s involvement in the motion.
“Kappa Delta does not seek to intervene in Horwitz v. Kirby and did not authorize the Motion To Intervene filed by attorney Robert Prince,” the statement read. “Kappa Delta has contacted Mr. Prince to correct the improper listing of Kappa Delta as a potential intervenor.”
This statement coincides with similar statements released by the headquarters of Alpha Omicron Pi and Zeta Tau Alpha Monday, stating they did not approve the hiring of legal representation as the sororities are not parties in the lawsuit.
In an emailed statement, Zeta Tau Alpha national president Keeley McDonald Riddle denied the involvement of the sorority in both the lawsuit and the motion to intervene.
“Zeta Tau Alpha has not been named as a party in any of these lawsuits, and therefore, we have not hired legal representation locally or nationally,” Riddle said.
Price said the sororities’ headquarters told him he did not have the authority to list the sororities in the motion and that they wished to be removed from the document. He said the sororities were originally named “purely in an attempt to protect the identities of the individual student voters.”
“I was surprised that the National Chapter heads didn’t support their local members,” Prince said in an emailed statement. “After all, the sororities and their members had already been mentioned by the plaintiff in public filings in the vein of cheating, taking bribes, etc.”
Prince said the withdrawal of the sororities will not affect the legal intervention, as the fraternities and students still wish to proceed. The remaining fraternities include Pi Kappa Alpha and Sigma Alpha Epsilon. Prince said now the question is whether the judge will let anyone intervene at all.
The original motion to intervene, filed last week, denies all illegal misconduct of said parties, stating “the Intervenors deny that they are guilty of any conduct that would warrant their vote being voided or not counted and Intervenors affirmatively state that they are entitled to a free and full exercise of their rights as U.S. citizens, voters and electors.”
The document goes on to delineate the voters’ rights as according to the Alabama Code, stating that the Intervenors are “all properly qualified and registered voters in District 4.”
The contest comes in response to the Aug. 27 District 4 Board of Education elections, where Cason Kirby beat Kelly Horwitz by 87 votes. Following the election, Horwitz alleged widespread voter fraud, largely focused on the UA greek community.
Horwitz is now contesting 397 votes from the election, at least 392 of which were cast by students. Kirby’s attorney, Andy Campbell, has denied any involvement by Kirby in the alleged fraud.
The testimony of the 397 voters will now be evaluated in the form of a 36-question affidavit, which largely focuses on evaluating the residence of the voter. The affidavits are due to the court Oct. 31, with the final trial date set for Nov. 18.
