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Brief
Capitol Square from the air. Photo by Ned Oliver.
One of the most senior Republicans in the House of Delegates will appear on the ballot as the official party nominee even though his nominating paperwork didn’t make it to the Department of Elections by the required deadline.
Del. Terry Kilgore, R-Scott, was the winner of a local party convention, which should have allowed him to be listed on the ballot as the official Republican nominee.
But there was a hiccup: Kilgore’s paperwork never made it to Richmond.
Kilgore’s team thought it had been faxed, then thought maybe it had been mailed, lawyer Jeff Mitchell told the Board of Elections earlier this week.
Mitchell, along with Kilgore’s twin brother, former Attorney General Jerry Kilgore, asked the Board of Elections to accept late party nomination paperwork so Terry Kilgore would be listed in the ballot as a Republican candidate.
Otherwise, he’d had to run a write-in campaign.
Mitchell provided the board with affidavits from several party officials and participants in the local nominating convention that said Kilgore was picked as the winner.
On Friday, the Board of Elections discussed the issue in a 30-minute closed session.
The board agreed to accept his paperwork and said Commissioner Chris Piper should come up with a policy, subject to the board’s approval, to handle “administrative errors with regard to accessing the ballot.”
The board on Friday also closed the book on the long-running dispute in the 97th House District over who the Republican nominee for the November election will be, signing off on the decision by party officials that Scott Wyatt, a member of the Hanover County Board of Supervisors, would be the GOP candidate, not the incumbent, Del. Chris Peace.
UPDATE: This story has been updated to include information about the nominating contest for the 97th House District.
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