Keith Judd, federal inmate, gets 41 percent of the vote against Obama in West Virginia primary

GlobalPost

Keith Judd, a federal inmate in Texas, gave Obama a run for his money in West Virginia's democratic primary, winning 41 percent of the vote to Obama's 59 percent, the Associated Press reported

Judd — who is currently serving a 17-year sentence at the Beaumont Federal Correctional Institution for making threats at the University of New Mexico in 1999 — carried at least eight counties in West Virginia, a fiercely anti-Obama state, USA Today reported

"I voted against Obama," Ronnie Brown, a 43-year-old electrician from Cross Lanes who called himself a conservative Democrat, told the AP. "I don't like him. He didn't carry the state before and I'm not going to let him carry it again."

More from GlobalPost: A bad day for Democrats

Nearly 70,000 West Virginians voted for Judd, the Beaumont Enterprise reported. 

According to state party laws, candidates who receive 15 percent of the vote or more are eligible to send delegates to the national convention, which will take place in Charlotte, North Carolina in September, local TV station WOWK reported

Judd was able to get onto the state's primary ballot thanks to West Virginia's comparatively liberal ballot access laws, which require that candidates meet residency, age, and any other eligibility requirements for the particular office, pay the $2,500 filing fee, and submit a form known as a notarized certification of announcement, the Charleston Gazette reported

However, officials believe Judd did not fill out the necessary paperwork. 

"It is not likely that he will earn any delegates to the national convention," Derek Scarboro, executive director of West Virginia's Democratic party, said in a written statement, according to WOWK. "No one filed to run as a national convention delegate to support him for president and he may not be eligible to serve anyways, since he is currently an inmate in a federal prison." 

More from GlobalPost: Poll: Obama and Romney virtually tied in swing states of Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania

West Virginia's voters are not the only ones taking out their frustrations on Obama at the ballots, the AP reported. Anti-abortion protester Randall Terry got 18 percent of the primary vote In Oklahoma, and John Wolfe, a lawyer from Tennessee, won nearly 18,000 votes in the Louisiana primary. In Alabama, 18 percent of Democratic voters chose “uncommitted” in the primary rather than vote for the President, according to the AP. 

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