On April 18, the West Virginia Constitution Party filed a federal lawsuit to get access for its petitioners to work in Stonewall Jackson Lake State Park. The case is Constitution Party of W.V. v Jezioro. The party is represented by the Rutherford Institute. State officials barred petitioning from last year’s National Hunting and Fishing Day festivities at that park, and the party hopes to prevent that from happening again.
The party has 11,000 signatures on its statewide petition, which carries the name of stand-in candidates for president and vice-president, and the party’s gubernatorial candidate. Since the petition requires 15,118, the party will probably be unable to complete the petition by the May deadline that applies to non-presidential candidates. The petition won’t be wasted, because it can still be used for president if it is finished by August 1. West Virginia irrationally requires petitions for office other than president to be submitted in May, but presidential petitions are due much later. A party remains on the ballot if it polls 1% for Governor, though, so it is a disappointment of the party can’t qualify for the gubernatorial race.
The same outcome affected the Libertarian Party in 2004 in West Virginia. It got on the ballot for president, but not Governor. The party filed a lawsuit in 2004 to challenge the May deadline, in state court, but the State Supreme Court refused to hear the case.
They could refer to the 2006 case from a Nebraska federal court, Groene v. Seng. The issue was police officers forcing initiative petitioners from public lands, when those public lands were temporarily rented out to public festivals.
I hope they kick it up a notch and try to get their gubanatorial candidate on the ballot.
Butch Paugh might do pretty well.
Go Constitution Party! Sue the bastards!
I don’t agree with the CP on most issues, but I don’t want this to become a precedent. Folks have the right to petition on public land and in parks.
FREEDOM AT THE BALLOT BOX FOR ALL PARTIES AND CANDIDATES.MIKE IS RIGHT SUE THE BASTARDS.
It is not irrational to require all candidates to be determined contemporaneously. In this case, the independent and minor party candidates are required to file one day before the primary. It would be unfair to permit new candidates to enter the race after other candidates were eliminated.
What the Constitution Party should be addressing is the early date of the primary, and not its effect on them.
Out of curiousity, what is the Constitution Party’s stand on Justice Harlan’s interpretation of the 14th Amendment with regard to voting rights?
Butch Paugh paid his $1500 filing fee well before the April 14 filing deadline to get on this ballot as a legitimate candidate.
In late September last year, Frank Jezioro wrote us a letter indicating that we were prohibited from canvassing for petition signatures in WV state parks. Since then, there have been some forty (40) public events and festivals like the Hunting and Fishing Days where we could have obtained signatures. Figuring conservatively, at even just 100 signatures per event, that’s shorted us the opportunity to collect over 4000 signatures.
The issue of the early deadline was already addressed by a lawsuit on behalf of the Libertarians in 2004, which lost on the grounds that they had not indicated any interference. We are hoping that it will be different this time since West Virginia public officials are on record as denying our access to the public – in direct conflict with WV Election Law.
Hope the local Green affiliate [Mountain Party] and others weigh in on this Democan/ Republicrat criminality!
If West Virginia just required the candidates of unqualified parties, and independent candidates, to file a declaration of candidacy when Dems & Reps file for the primary (which the state does do), that satisfies the state interest in having all candidates file simultaneously. It doesn’t follow logically, though, that the petition should be submitted the day before the May primary. New Hampshire, Kentucky, Texas, and Rhode Island, have somewhat early deadlines for petitioning candidates to file a declaration of candidacy, but the petitions themselves aren’t due for months later.
More separate is NOT equal stuff — regardless of Brown v. Bd of Ed 1954 ??? Duh.
WV was carved out of VA during the 1861-1865 Civil War by a pro-Union rump legislature in the very northern part of VA — mainly to get 2 more pro-Union U.S.A. Senators.
Any need for a Civil WAR II to have EQUAL voting rights ???
YES SIR WE NEED A CIVIL WAR TO HAVE EQUAL VOTING RIGHTS.
YES YES YES. WE NEED A CIVIL WAR IN THIS COUNTRST , HELL WE NEED A REVOLUTION.
Re: #8 In West Virginia, candidates for office are nominated by bodies of voters. The voters are organized by a party with which they self-identify, or with an ad hoc group for the purpose of supporting an individual candidacy.
It is these bodies that hold their nominating activity contemporaneously. In the case of established parties, the voters select their nominees in primaries on May 27. In the case of independent candidates or candidates of non-established parties, voters sign petitions in the period prior to May 26.
The declaration of candidacy is simply the initiation of these two parallel and contemporaneous processes.
It is completely rational, except for when the nomination occurs.
In Texas, nomination by major parties is by primary, and for minor or new parties by convention. The primary is on the 1st Tuesday in March, with a possible runoff in April. The initial stage of the convention process is on the 2nd Tuesday in March, with county and multi-county district conventions on the following two Saturdays. Nominations for all but statewide offices is completed by then. Statewide nominees occur at a state convention in June; but the nomination may well have been determined prior to that, especially if only one candidate has filed. In Texas, the multi-stage convention process is the equivalent of a primary, and candidates must file just as if they were seeking to be nominated in a primary. The two processes are contemporaneous, and voters are restricted to the activities of a single party.
New parties use the convention process to nominate candidates, and they gain ballot access based on the number of voters who attend their precinct conventions. However, they are permitted to augment that number by petition in the 75 days following the precinct conventions.
Independent candidates are nominated by petition gathered immediately after the primary. If there is a runoff for the office they seek, the start of the petitioning period is delayed until after the runoff. Voters who participated in a primary may not sign the petition of an independent candidate who seeks an office that had a nominee determined by the primary. Independent candidates are required to file a declaration of candidacy at the same time as those seeking party nomination.
The nominating activities in Texas are contemporaneous for all three forms of nomination. It is totally rational, except for the fact that it occurs early in the year, with no rational connection with the timing of the general election.
People who sign petitions for unqualified parties in West Virginia are not the people who are nominating the candidates. The US Supreme Court ruled in 2000 in California Democratic Party v Jones that parties cannot be forced to let outsiders help nominate their candidates.
When an unqualified party in West Virginia goes out on the street with its petitions, that unqualified party is the group that has nominated those candidates. The petition signers are not nominating anyone. Instead, the petition signers are saying, this party is important enough that it deserves to be on the ballot.
So, making the petition deadline in August would not contradict any principle that all groups and parties, major and minor, should nominate simultaneously.
Butch Paugh is running for governor of West Virginia. He may have had encouragement from friends, associates, even folks who have an organization that they call the Constitution Party, who consider him to be “their nominee”. Nonetheless, what will determine whether his name will appear on the general election ballot is whether or not enough voters put their squiggly marks on a sheet of paper.
Joe Manchin is running for governor of West Virginia. He may have had encouragement from friends, associates, even folks who have an organization that they call the Democratic Party. Nonetheless, what will determine whether his name will appear on the general election ballot is whether or not enough voters pull the lever next to his name in the Democratic Primary.
It is semantic wordplay to separate the two alternative processes into:
Process I: “nomination” followed by petition.
Process II: primary that determines nomination.
Imagine if Baugh and Manchin were at the Secretary of State’s office claiming a place on the ballot. Do you think the conversation might go like this:
SoS: Why are you here?
Manchin: I won the primary.
SoS: You mean you are the Democrat nominee?
Manchin: Same difference.
SoS: No, winning the primary made you the nominee, being the nominee got you the place on the general election ballot.
SoS (to Paugh): Why are you here?
Paugh: (glances at Manchin) I’m the Constitution Party nominee.
SoS (glares): Can’t you keep your twisty little legal passages all the same separate? You were nominated by the Constitution Party, but you are on the general election ballot because of your petition.
Paugh and Manchin (together): xyzzy
In [i]California Democratic Party v. Jones[/i] the SCOTUS ruled that political parties may restrict participation in their nominating primaries (which are required by law) to groups of voters who have slight less superficial political affiliation with the party than others.
Where do I go to sign the petition onlin? I cannot find it.