West Virginia has been holding presidential primaries since 1916, and will do so again in May 2008. However, most of the West Virginia delegates to the 2008 Republican convention will be chosen by a special state party convention on February 5, 2008. The West Virginia Republican Party sends 27 delegates to Minneapolis. Fifteen of them will be chosen at the party’s February convention and only nine of them will be chosen by the Republican voters in May.

West Virginia Democrats send 39 delegates to Denver. However, only 18 will be chosen in the primary. Nine will be chosen by a state convention in June and 12 other seats are reserved for particular party officials and public officials.

Capital University Law Review, fall 2006, Volume 35, #1, has just published an article by Law Professor Mark R. Brown, calling for an end to the challenge system of checking petitions. The article is titled, “Policing Ballot Access: Lessons from Nader’s 2004 Run for President.” The article is 81 pages long. Capital University is in Columbus, Ohio.

The “challenge system” is not used in most states. Most states provide that elections officials check the validity of petitions, and their decision is final. A minority of states, however, use the “challenge system.” Petitions are deemed to be valid, but any private individual or group is then free to “challenge” the petition and attempt to show that it lacks enough valid signatures. Brown’s article shows the deficiencies of this system. The article is also useful for documenting the history of most of Nader’s 2004 ballot access fights.