There's nothing so potent as voting for a felon to show your president you don't quite like his policies. That's the route many West Virginians took on Tuesday, with 41 percent of voters in the Democratic primary backing Keith Judd, who is currently serving time at the Beaumont Federal Correctional Institution in Texas, the Associated Press reports.
Judd, who was imprisoned for making threats at the University of Mexico, only had to pay a $2,500 fee and file paperwork to get on the ballot in West Virginia. According to Project Vote Smart, he's previously run for president every election year since 1996, and prior to that, ran for Mayor of Albuquerque and Governor of New Mexico. Aside from politics, Judd evidently attended the Kennedy School of Politics at Harvard, worked in the music industry, and has been a member of both the ACLU and the NRA.
Judd has filed dozens of FEC disclosures since 1995, when he started his run, many of which contain federalist tirades or court documents revealing he once asked for an "emergency federal election injunction" because he felt he had rightfully won the 2000 elections.
Although he won ample votes to receive delegates to the Democratic National Convention, no one has filed to act as a delegate for Judd, so his percentage of the vote is primarily a protest against Obama. In 2008, Arizona Sen. John McCain won West Virginia in the general election, but Hillary Clinton won the primary there, with 20 percent of Democratic primary voters saying race was a factor in their choice.
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