On August 4, Stephen “Marshall” Wilson, an independent state legislator who is running for Governor of West Virginia, filed a federal lawsuit for ballot access relief due to the health crisis. He needed 7,139 signatures and he submitted 7,200 on the August 3 deadline, but the Secretary of State the next day determined he did not have enough signatures.
Wilson v Justice, s.d., 2:20cv-526. Wilson had repeatedly asked for ballot access relief. The Secretary of State, Mac Warner, said he was favorable to granting some relief, but that he could not act without the approval of Governor Jim Justice. Of course, Wilson is running against Governor Justice. Here is the Complaint. UPDATE: the case is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Thomas E. Johnston, a Bush Jr. appointee.
Wilson had been re-elected to the legislature in 2018 as a Republican, but on December 17, 2019, he had changed his affiliation to independent. If he gets on the ballot, he will be the first independent candidate for Governor of West Virginia on the ballot since 1920.
Ironically, Governor Justice had also switched partisan affiliation after his last election. He was elected as a Democrat in 2016 but he switched to Republican on August 3, 2017.
My guess is that he will lose this lawsuit. They should lower the signature requirement, and/or extend the deadline, due to COVID scare, but I doubt they will.
In West Virginia, candidates can begin petitioning immediately after the last election for the office sought. Thus, for governor, Marshall could have begun petitioning as long ago as November 9, 2016. There is no requirement to wait until after a primary to begin petitioning. The fact that the West Virginia primary was moved back a month this year is completely irrelevant. Marshall announced his intention to run way back in January before any of the Covid restrictions: https://morgancountyusa.org/?p=4341 – thus he should have started petitioning then. Ballot access case closed, but he will more than likely run a strong write-in campaign.
According to a facebook post by Marshall this morning, he turned in 5710 unvalidated signatures out of the required 7139 valid. Assuming typical validity rates, he probably met 50% of the requirement: https://www.facebook.com/smarshall.wilson.3
I think he will win this case. Generally these cases win when the candidate or party collected a substantial number of signatures, and in which the state had refused any relief. These wins have been in Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Utah, and Virginia.
I hope you’re right. Richard. I was one of those petitioning for him.
Republican Judge, Republican governor? I see a loss coming. But I’ll root for him anyway,
In my county we had a county commissioner win in a historic write-in campaign, never dismiss the power of the people and a write-in campaign.