LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Louisville politician is suing the Secretary of State and the Jefferson County Clerk, just weeks away from the general election, claiming they're violating voters' rights by refusing to put a democrat on the House District 29 ballot.
Secretary Michael Adam's office said the democrats missed their deadline and won't get do-overs.
"The Secretary of State is meddling in a partisan fashion, in politics, to deprive democrats of a candidate," Elections Attorney Anna Whites told WHAS11 News.
White represents politician Ann Sermersheim in the lawsuit filed in September.
However, the issue began in January. That's when Matthew Pfaadt threw his hat into the House District 29 race, running as a Democrat. But, Pfaadt failed to register as a democrat before the December deadline and Republican Incumbent Kevin Bratcher sued Pfaadt.
"He could not even vote in his own primary if he had had one," Rep. Bratcher told WHAS11 News.
So, Pfaadt withdrew and Sermersheim tried to fill the spot and put a democrat on the ballot - when she went to file her nomination and deceleration, the Secretary of State's office said, "No vacancy exists," according to Whites.
"Matthew is gone. Here's the withdrawal paper you filed," White said.
The Secretary of State's office said ballots are already being printed. WHAS11 started looking into this before the lawsuit was filed - at that time Adam's office told us in part, "The law does not anticipate multiple do-overs, gaming the system, or brinkmanship close to the election."
Just weeks away from the election, that'll be up to a judge to decide.
A motion to set a hearing for this case is slated for Sept. 26.
► Contact reporter Tom Lally at TLally@whas11.com or on Facebook or Twitter.
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