Obama Bizarrely Loses Chunk of Votes to Inmate
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- A long-time federal prisoner -- let that sink in -- grabbed a huge portion of primary votes against President Barack Obama in West Virginia.
Keith Judd, an inmate serving time at the Beaumont Federal Correctional Institution in Texas, paid a $2,500 fee and filed an official form to get on the Democratic primary ballot in West Virginia, where he grabbed 40.6%, according to Tuesday night's results.
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| Federal prisoner Keith Russell Judd |
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"Keith Judd's performance is embarrassing for Obama and our great state," Mike Stuart, West Virginia GOP chairman, told The Associated Press.
Though Obama handily won the race with 59.4% of the vote on 105,833 votes against Judd's 72,459, the bizarre circumstance may reveal the president's unpopularity in a state where he lost by 13.1 percentage points in 2008.
The Republican National Committee blasted out an email Wednesday morning that highlighted the unusual race and said: "Obama loses large share of vote in West Virginia to a felon doing time in Texas."
The state Democratic Party believes Judd failed to file the proper paperwork for presidential candidates, which would deny him the delegates he would likely receive for having received more than 15% of the vote, according to the AP.
-- Written by Joe Deaux in New York.
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