(Apologies to all those offended by the antique language)
Few people outside of Chicago know who Willie Wilson is. He’s a businessman who ran for Mayor last time out and came in third. So he decided to run for president.
Getting on the ballot outside of New Hampshire is a very difficult process. Wilson managed to get on the ballot in about ten states, including South Carolina two weeks hence.
But this is about Mississippi.
Mississippi, has two ways of getting on the ballot.
First: Getting chosen by the media. Clinton, Sanders and O’Malley did were because the media insisted that there be debates and Debbie WS capitulated.
Second: submitting a petition with at least 500 signatures, and the signatures must be evenly divided among the five congressional districts that Mississippi had two decades ago.
Wilson’s petitions weren’t exactly EVENLY divided, so even though he had far more than enough signatures, he wasn’t allowed on the ballot.
So his lawyers presented a legal opinion from a few cycles back saying that they didn’t HAVE to be exactly even. So the Miss. Democratic committee sent a note to the Secretary of State (a Dixiecr...um….right-wing Republican) asking him to put Wilson on the ballot.
The Secretary of State refused.
So now there’s a lawsuit. Arguments were heard yesterday, and we should know whether or not an African American who followed all the rules will be denied ballot status….In MISSISSIPPI of all places.
Stay tuned.