From Cliff Thies:

We broke it here. There may be a special election to fill the late Senator Robert Byrd's unexpired term this year.

The WV Secretary of State notices, as we did, that West Virginia's law is unclear about this, when such a vacancy occurs with more than 2 1/2 years left in a term but prior to the filing date for the primaries, as happened this year. Her reading of the law is that the special election is to take place in 2012, coincident with the regular election. Her reading of the law is informed by a 1994 WV court ruling dealing with a would-be Republican candidate for a vacancy in a judicial office. But, the filing period for independents and third-parties is not past. They have until July 30th to file for the ballot by petition, which is their "primary" (and the law on this seems clear enough, the petitioning period IS the primary period for those who are nominated by petition).

If the Republicans are too prissy to push the issue, the WV Libertarian Party should attempt to put a candidate on the ballot. The WV LP does not have a petitioning drive underway, there being no regularly-scheduled statewide election this year. This is good news and bad news. It is good news, since an attempt to qualify a candidate for a special election for the unexpired term of Senator Byrd would not disrupt a petitioning drive already underway. It is bad news, since the infrastructure of a petitioning drive is not already set up, and the deadline for filing is soon upon us. Should enough valid signatures be submitted, I am confident the Secretary of State will promulgate rules allowing nomination by convention for the parties of the state that nominate by primary (i.e., the Democrats, Republicans and Mountain Party), rather than risk losing an appeal of a ruling that there is no special election, since she has already admitted that the WV law is unclear.