The West Virginia State Supreme Court heard Wells v Miller on September 7, and the Court suggested it would issue an opinion by the close of business on Thursday, September 8. However, there is no opinion yet as of 6:30 p.m. eastern time. The issue is whether anyone who holds the constitutional qualifications to hold an elective office may petition to be an independent candidate, or whether only registered independents can do that.
There is no West Virginia law restricting who can be an independent candidate. But all candidates, whether general election or primary election, use the same declaration of candidacy form, and it asks for the candidate’s party affiliation. Because the form was mostly designed for primary candidates, it seems to suggest that no one can run if the candidate’s registration and the candidate’s ballot label don’t match up.
Interesting that you mention the primary, because here is what a registered Republican running as an independent for the same office in another county had to say: “…Sandra Saurborn is running as an independent [for Marion County clerk] (but) is a registered Republican so the rules are reversed,” …“I started this whole process on March 24, 2016, because I missed the primary election,” she said… http://www.timeswv.com/news/state-supreme-court-ruling-will-affect-ballot-in-marion-county/article_179f4e94-7595-11e6-8d60-fb1d6309d2a8.html
Saurborn mentions talking with Kris Warner who is the brother of Mac Warner who is the GOP’s Secretary of State candidate here. Just like the Democrats could easily have nominated Wells to fill the clerk vacancy after the primary, so could have the Republicans. Note, the primary was May 10th, but the filing deadline for it was the end of January. Since no other Republicans were running for the office, why didn’t Saurborn just go to her local GOP in April and ask for the slot?
If the court doesn’t uphold this decision, the whole process here will be corrupted and it could possibly lead to MORE RESTRICTIVE ballot access laws making it harder for independents to do late petitioning and thus negatively affecting minor party candidates as well.
Also, FWIW, in 2012, Dan Litten was the Constitution Party candidate for state senate in the newly redrawn District 15 where there was no Democrat opposition. On his declaration of candidacy, he indicated Constitution Party and collected the required number of ballot access signatures. His wife thought she had changed both of their registrations to Constitution Party, but it was discovered last year, upon reviewing the 2015 voter registration list, that Dan was still registered Republican (forgot to send in what the wife gave him?). So the WVSOS actually let a Republican run against another Republican in the 2012 GENERAL election. The SOS obviously NEVER VERIFIED the candidacy information!! We need Donald Trump here to fire a lot of people.