Judge Paul Sheridan, a retired Circuit Court judge from Arlington, will decide at 10 a.m. whether or not the Prince William County GOP will be able to have a state-run primary.
This court hearing comes after the Prince William County GOP Chairman, Bill Card, forgot to file the paperwork for a Republican state-run primary before the State Board of Elections deadline.
Prince William County Board of Supervisors primary candidate Chris Crawford and incumbent and Chairman At-Large Corey Stewart spoke with Potomac Local about their thoughts about the hearing and the primaries.
“We tried through the State Board of Elections, the State Board of Elections said ‘We can’t fix this, but the local Board of the Elections can’. And then the local Board of Elections – the two Democrats on there didn’t feel that they didn’t have the power to do that, so they denied the primary,” said Stewart.
After the local board had denied the request, Stewart, Sheriff Glenn Hill, Supervisor Maureen Caddigan and Supervisor Marty Nohe filed a writ of mandamus with the Circuit Court, to require a hearing.
At the hearing, Sheridan will have the option to reaffirm the local board’s decision, or court order the local board to allow the Republican Party to have a state-run primary, according to Stewart.
“Look – [Card] just made a clerical error. There is the opportunity for the State Board of Elections to correct,” Stewart commented.
According to Crawford, this will not change much for his campaign.
“It doesn’t matter to me at this point, which way we go. My team is ready for whichever – we just want to know so we can tell people. We’re getting a lot of questions,” Crawford said.
Crawford stated that he found his opponent Stewart’s position to push for a state-run primary odd.
“It’s curious…I think it’s hard for me to say what’s going on – why he and the others – seem so interested in doing it in June. I don’t think that it should matter…I think they should just stand up there, and go on their record,” Crawford said.
Crawford also said that individual candidates did not have to let Card file their paperwork for the primary ballots – per Virginia law, individual candidates can file their own paperwork.
Stewart said his motivation for the writ of mandamus and the push for the state-run primary are constituents that may not be able to get out to the polls in a party-run primary.
“My issue with a party run nomination is that it does not allow for people that – for whatever reason – are not able to come to a party run process. And, as a result, a party run process, such as a firehouse primary or a convention excludes active duty military…we’re going to fight for a primary where there’s a provision for absentee balloting, which would allow for active duty military, the elderly, and people with mobility issues to vote,” said Stewart, continuing, “We’ve got men and women, serving…around the world, who cannot participate in a convention or canvass because there’s no provision for absentee voting – those are our number one citizens, and those are the ones we’re fighting for, to participate in this process.”
