(a) Any election held under this act may be contested as provided for in this section.
(b)
(1) Any number of the citizens and legal voters, but not less than ten (10), of the county, city, town, district, or precinct in which the elections have been held, shall have the right to contest any election held under this act and shall be designated the contestants.
(2) The contestants shall file, within ten (10) days after the final action of the examining board, in the office of the clerk of the county court a written statement of the grounds of the contest. They shall cause a copy of the statement to be served on the county judge and shall give notice thereof by written or printed notice to be posted at the courthouse door of the county, and in three (3) or more public places in the county, city, town, district, or precinct in which the election has been held. They shall cause the notice to be published in some newspaper of the county, when possible, for two (2) consecutive issues, commencing not later than the first issue of the paper after filing the statement.
(3) When a notice of the contest shall be executed on the county judge, the certificate shall not be recorded.
(c) Any number of the citizens and legal voters, not less than ten (10), of the county, city, town, district, or precinct in which the election has been held, may resist the contest by filing in the office of the clerk of the county court a statement controverting the grounds of the contestants and may state any additional grounds to sustain the election, and they shall be designated as the contestees.
(d) The contest shall be heard and determined by the same board which, by law, is authorized and empowered to hear and determine a contest of an election for county officers. The same provisions of the statutes shall apply to the contest of any election held under this act as are provided for the contest of any election for county officers, except as provided in this section.
(e) Notice for the taking of depositions or other proceedings in the contest may be executed on the person whose name appears first as contestant or contestee, which shall be deemed notice to all his or her associates.
(f) In case the required number shall fail to appear as contestees, ex parte testimony shall be competent before the contesting board.
(g) The trial of the case shall be on the fourth Monday after the filing in the county clerk's office of the grounds of the contest; however, the board, for good cause, may allow further time.
(h) The decision of the board shall be given in writing and signed in triplicate. One (1) copy shall be delivered to the contestants and one (1) copy to the contestees, and the other shall be delivered to the county clerk of the county in which the contest is pending, which shall be entered on the record of the county court.
(i) If the decision of the board is that a majority of the legal votes cast at the election were against the sale of such liquors, the entry of the decision shall have the same effect as the recording of the certificates of the examining board as provided in § 3-8-306.
(j) The contestants or contestees shall have the right to appeal from the decision of the board to the circuit court of the county where the contest is pending, in the same way as appeals are taken from the lower courts to the circuit court. An appeal from the circuit court may be taken as provided by law.
(k) The cost of the contest shall be adjudged against the unsuccessful parties.