The Associated Press
CHARLESTON —
Stan and Janet Norman are running for office whether they like it or not.
The Beckley couple are in the middle of a mix-up that has them on the ballot for seats on the state Republican Executive Committee in Wood County, about 135 miles from their home. They want to be on the Raleigh County ballot, but state and local elections officials say the ballots have been certified and have to remain as they are.
“It’s a complete mess,” Stan Norman said Thursday.
This is how it happened: The Normans wanted to run for seats on the executive committee representing their home district. They say workers at the county courthouse told them to fill out the paperwork listing them as living in the third senatorial district.
The confusion may stem from the fact that Raleigh County is in the third congressional district, but the Normans live in the ninth senatorial district. The couple didn’t realize this, though, and filed their paperwork in January.
The first person to catch the error was apparently state Sen. Donna Boley, the Republican who represents the third senatorial district.
“Sen. Boley called me and wanted to know why our names were on the ballot,” Norman said. “We contacted the secretary of state’s office and tried to get it fixed, and they said, ’Well, we think it’s too late.”’
Norman says he and his wife submitted paperwork to remove their names from the ballot, were denied, and then lost a further appeal.
The secretary of state’s office disputes that. Spokesman Jake Glance says the office sent the Normans withdrawal papers, but never got the forms back. Once the Feb. 16 deadline passed, there was nothing the office could do.
“If a person wants to withdraw from a race, we’re not going to say, ’No, you can’t,”’ Glance said. “We did everything we could to help them.”
The result of all this confusion is that Wood County Republicans now have two Raleigh County residents as choices for state office. Legally, there’s nothing that can be done to change that — even if the Normans withdraw from the race, Glance said, their names will remain on the ballot.
Wood County Clerk Jamie Six, the chief elections official there, said part of the problem is widespread confusion about residency requirements for office-seekers. The Legislature has mandated that county commissioners must reside in the district where they’re running, but hasn’t codified residency rules for other offices.
Court decisions have been split on the matter, Six said, with candidates generally being allowed to run for any office aside from county commissioner as long as they’re willing to move by the time they’re sworn in.
“I don’t think the secretary of state’s office did a thing wrong,” he said. “Unfortunately, the Legislature hasn’t clarified what to do in situations like this. The secretary of state doesn’t have a choice.”
The Normans, frustrated with the situation, are washing their hands of it. Stan Norman said he’s been through enough run-around, and isn’t going to formally withdraw from the race since his name will remain on the ballot anyway.
And besides, you never know what can happen in an election.
“Half my relatives live in that region, so maybe I’ll get elected,” he laughed.
