The Alabama State Democratic Executive Committee upheld Yusuf Salaam’s razor thin June 25 Democratic runoff victory over LaTosha Brown on Saturday.

The 300-plus member committee voted overwhelmingly to uphold the findings of its own five-member sub-committee, which heard testimony in the case at the Dallas County Courthouse Annex in August.

Brown had appealed the runoff results, contesting Salaam’s 138-vote margin of victory. She contended that there were fraud and misconduct on the part of voting officials, irregularities with absentee ballots, numerous instances of people voting in the wrong district, and a concerted Republican crossover voting effort.

During the course of that appeal, Brown’s attorneys subpoenaed 284 voters in an effort to establish their claims.

On Aug. 17, the five-member panel, headed by Montgomery attorney Terry Davis, found insufficient evidence to support Brown’s claims and ruled that Salaam was properly certified as the Democratic candidate for the state House of Representatives District 67 seat.

On Aug. 27, Cassandra Smith, an elector, appealed the sub-committee’s decision. It was that appeal that the full executive committee voted on Saturday.

The executive committee had appointed a review panel to examine the latest appeal and heard a report from that panel before voting.

Although he is not a member of the state executive committee, Keith was in attendance when the committee met.

Keith said that during the meeting state Sen. Hank Sanders, a member of the executive committee, made a motion that the committee throw out the election results and call for a new District 67 election.

Keith said that there was &uot;praise and applause&uot; for the sub-committee’s handling of Brown’s initial appeal. &uot;They found that the sub-committee had been fair, objective and that they had followed both state law and Democratic Party procedures,&uot; he said.

With the executive committee’s vote Saturday, Brown has now exhausted any recourse she has within the Democratic Party. Any further appeal of the election results would have to be taken to the courts.

Keith noted that during Redding Pitt’s tenure as state Democratic Party chairman, no election results have ever been overturned by the courts.