State ex rel. Blankenship v. Warner

The Supreme Court denied the writ sought by Petitioners requesting the issuance of a writ of mandamus directing Respondent, the West Virginia Secretary of State, to list Donald Blankenship as a candidate for the United States Senate on the general election ballot as the nominee of the Constitution Party of West Virginia, holding that there was no legal right in Petitioners to the relief sought and no legal duty on the part of Respondent to do the thing which Petitioners sought to compel.Specifically, the Court held (1) W. Va. Code 3-5-23(a) prohibits unsuccessful primary candidates from running as nomination-certificate candidates in the general election; (2) the ballot access restriction in section 3-5-23(a) is constitutional; and (3) because Blankenship unsuccessfully ran in the 2018 Republican primary election, he was now prohibited from gaining access to the 2018 general election ballot for the same office by means of a nomination-certificate candidacy. View "State ex rel. Blankenship v. Warner" on Justia Law