VIDALIA — Concordia Parish sheriff candidate Glenn Lipsey filed a petition to appeal the decision to throw his election contest out Tuesday.

The Lipsey election contest was thrown out Monday by Judge Sharon Marchman, and if the appeal is heard it will be argued before the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

No date or official word whether the court will hear the appeal has been given yet.

The petition was filed on Lipsey’s behalf by his attorneys, Andy Magoun of Ferriday, Sheri Morris of Baton Rouge and Brady King II of Monroe.

Marchman accompanied her decision to throw out the contest with a 20-page written reasons for judgement detailing her decision.

All but 16 of the challenges to votes Lipsey filed based on residency were tossed out because of lack of evidence or due dilligence.

Lipsey’s testimony reflected he knew there might be questionable voting practices during the election but did not investigate them beforehand, Marchman wrote.

Because most of those whose votes were challenged were either employees of the sheriff’s office or were family members of employees of the sheriff’s office, and because the sheriff’s office employs fewer than 100 people, it “would not have been a burdensome number for Mr. Lipsey to investigate prior to the election,” Marchman wrote.

Lipsey could have also challenged some of the voters who voted early or absentee, but he did not, Marchman wrote.

For those reasons, all but the 16 challenges Lipsey filed before the election — 13 to absentee or early votes and three made on election day — were considered waived.

In a footnote, Marchman noted that five of the challenges she considered waived were unqualified to vote, and 11 were qualified to vote.

Of the 13 challenges that stood, only eight were found to be valid, and because that number was not big enough to change the election, Marchman threw out the suit.

One other vote was thrown out because it was found an elector had voted twice.