West Virginia’s five electoral votes won’t be in play for President Obama this November but his campaign has to be somewhat aggravated by how that state’s democratic party primary turned out last Tuesday.

Of the nearly 180-thousand presidential primary votes cast, an astounding 72,544 were marked for Keith Judd.  Obama received the balance (105,854 votes).  Unopposed in most states, Obama is a cinch to recapture his party’s nomination.  The outcome in West Virginia won’t impact his campaign’s strategy to gather 270-plus electoral college votes in the slightest.

But the extreme outlandishness of what happened in West Virginia cannot be understated.  Judd might as well be Daffy Duck for the purposes of categorizing him as a candidate.  He’s nuts.  He has zero credentials for the job and he’ll be incarcerated in Texas for the entirety of the term he‘s seeking.  Judd shouldn’t be anywhere near a presidential primary ballot – especially when serious, law-abiding public servants seeking lower-ranking offices are denied ballot access all over this country all the time.

I’m all for greater choice in the voting booth but Judd’s performance in West Virginia reflects badly on that state’s notoriously crooked Democratic Party machinery and the loyalists it turns out for elections.

Lawmakers there can start by refining state election law to raise the bar on access to the Presidential primary ballot.  While the US constitution put limits on what states can do in this regard, there has to be a way to keep a guy like Judd from making a joke of the process.  From Texarkana, TX, Judd mailed off three money orders (likely with help from a trickster) totaling $2500 and a notarized, completed form to gain his spot on WV’s ballot.  Only the names of Judd and Obama appeared on WV’s democratic party ballot under the choice for president.  For $2500, you’d think more people would take a crack at it.

West Virginia’s junior senator Joe Manchin and current governor Earl Ray Tomblin are both democrats but both refuse to endorse Obama.  Manchin wouldn’t even reveal who he voted for in the Obama/Judd matchup.

Judd won 41-percent of the vote state-wide.  He won coal-rich Mingo County by a margin of 2972 to 1967.  He won ten counties across the state.  Even in Raleigh County where there’s some degree of scrutiny and structure, Judd garnered nearly half the 6500 or so votes cast.

Obama’s clean energy push (as modest as it may be) scares many in West Virginia.  Coal is king there.  But the droves who cast a protest vote for a convicted sap look foolish for the choice made.  So do the party power brokers who got a little too cute for their own good when they facilitated the outcome they ended up with.

-Congrats to Dan Lynch for hitting the five-year mark with his great web site NYCTaper.  A week after recording the Woods/Crystal Stilts show at 285 Kent, Lynch is celebrating NYCTaper’s anniversary at the same venue tonight.  Oneida will top the special bill.  Among the hundreds of shows recorded and made available for download on Lynch’s site the last five years are 11 Oneida gigs.  Lynch and a small team of helpers record many of New York City’s important music performances and later present them to the public in full form with a brief review and set list.  Said Lynch on NYCTaper:  “It’s a humbling experience to realize that our hard work and good intentions have made this site work for a community of music performers and music lovers.  We hope to keep doing this and to continue to grow into the future.”