Ballot format challenged in West Virginia
Democratic secretary of state candidate Mike Oliverio has filed court petitions against ballot commissioners in eight counties challenging the placement of the seven secretary of state candidates' names on those counties' May 11 Democratic primary ballots.
A petition challenging ballots in Boone, Jackson, Lincoln, McDowell, Nicholas, Summers and Webster counties was filed Wednesday in the state Supreme Court. The court ordered the prosecutors in those counties to file responses by noon Thursday. ...
On the ballots, which are all to be read by optical scanners, the Democratic secretary of state candidates' names appear at the bottom of one column and spill over into another. Five names appear in one column and two in the next. Because the order of candidates is randomly chosen in each county, Oliverio's name appears in the second column on about half the ballots.
Oliverio said state law requires that if the candidates in a particular race have to be split between two columns, the columns have to be "nearly equal.'' Instead of a five-two split, there should be a four-three or three-four split.
Also, at the end of the first column on each county's ballot is the notation "continued on the following column.'' But at the top of the second column, the two names appear alone, without any indication they are candidates for secretary of state.
Oliverio said the notation at the end of the first column should be "secretary of state candidates continued'' and there should be a notation at the top of the second column indicating the next two names are secretary of state candidates. -- Oliverio challenges ballots in Supreme Court, Raleigh County (AP via Charleston Gazette)