SD Judge allows State Democratic Senate Candidate on the ballot, despite flaws in nominating petition

May 28, 2012

Pierre, South Dakota: On Monday, May 21, Sixth Judicial Circuit Judge Mark Barnett ruled that Charles Johnson could still be included on the states November ballot even though his nominating petition was flawed. Secretary of State Jason Gant had originally rejected the petition because it claimed that Johnson was running for Lake County and not District Eight, which includes more than the one county. Judge Barnett determined, however, that no one was misled as another part of the petition mentioned District 8. According to Grant, Johnson was one of 4 candidates to make the same mistake, but the only one without time to fix the mistake before the deadline. Grant disagreed with the ruling, stating, ""An error there is much more than a simple, technical issue."

See also

• Mark Barnett

References

This article was written by Joshua Meyer-Gutbrod, an Assistant Staff Writer for the Federal Courts Project on Judgepedia. He can be reached at joshua.meyer-gutbrod.