The town of Sophia, West Virginia, holds partisan elections for town office, but the town charter only permits two political parties to contest those elections. The town is holding elections for its own officers on June 2, 2009. The incumbent Recorder of the town, Sherry Hatfield, is willing to run for re-election (she had been appointed to the position a few months earlier and had never actually run in an election before). However, neither of the two parties recognized in Sophia nominated her. Town political parties in Sophia nominate by convention, not by primary.

The town printed up ballots listing three candidates for Recorder. It listed Sherry Hatfield with no party label. It also listed the Progressive Party nominee, Linda Hatfield, and the Citizen Party nominee, Ron Mills. However, the Secretary of State’s office advised the town to delete Sherry Hatfield’s name from the ballot, since she had not filed as an independent candidate; she had only filed as a declared write-in candidate. Obviously she did not file as an independent candidate because the town rules don’t permit independent candidates. See this story, published May 14.

However, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Storer v Brown in 1974 that jurisdictions that hold partisan elections must have procedures for independent candidates to get on the ballot. In the absense of any such procedure, independent candidates can get on the ballot with no petition, per McCarthy v Briscoe, another U.S. Supreme Court opinion in 1976. Efforts are being made to bring this information to the attention of various West Virginia officials.

Sophia is a small town of approximately 1,000 people, but it is somewhat well-known for being the home of U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd.