There was a change in the election laws between this election and the last one. It added the requirement to file the required financial statement electronically, but did not eliminate the requirement that non-incumbents file a hard copy of the financial statement with the county party when they filed to run in the primary. A number of county parties told people they only needed to file it online. The court ruled that law meant what it said and that the hard copy needed to be filed with the party.
Sen. Knotts got a friend of his to file this lawsuit so as to knock his opponent off the ballot.
He failed, and in the process has managed to cost himself at least one vote, mine. I was planning on voting for him, despite his flaws, because I don't care for his enemies. Now I'll be voting for Shealy, because as bad as I think his enemies are, they ain't this dirty.
The number of affected people turned out to be closer to 180. Efforts to fix the problem have failed because of the opposition of the incumbents who think they benefit from it. The affected candidates still have the option to file as petition candidates in the general election, and a number of them are planning on doing so.
