Judge to decide ease of D.A.’s campaign in upcoming election
After a day and a half of testimony, Fayette County Judge John F. Wagner must decide if there are enough invalid signatures on the nominating petition of district attorney candidate John Cupp Jr. to strike him from the May ballot. The jurist has until this afternoon at 4:30 p.m. to decide if any of Cupp’s 315 signatures should be struck. If at least 66 signatures fail to meet the guidelines, Cupp will not have enough names to meet the mandatory 250 signatures needed to file the petition.
Incumbent District Attorney Nancy D. Vernon filed the challenge last week. If she is successful in removing Cupp from the ballot, she will face no opposition in the upcoming primary election. Both Cupp and Vernon are Democrats and there are no Republicans running.
Vernon, through attorney James T. Davis, challenged various signatures for several different reasons. Some were challenged because those who signed Cupp’s petition are registered Republican or unregistered and others because the signatures did not match those of the voter registration card.
Davis called a handwriting expert on Vernon’s behalf to challenge signatures. In some cases, those who signed the petition testified it was their signature in others, they testified it was not.
Davis asked Wagner to look at the registration cards and compare that to the people who testified they did sign the card to determine if they were testifying truthfully.
Wagner said he was unsure if he would be able to do that, noting that the signature he affixed to his registration card in 1972 is likely not the same signature he has today.
“If I looked at the two of them, I’d tell you it’s two different people,” said Wagner.
Cupp, meanwhile, asked Wagner to give weight to the testimony of those who said they did sign the nominating petition.
Davis also asked several signatures be stricken because they were not identical to signatures that appeared on voter registration cards, for example a maiden name appeared on a voter registration card but a married name appeared on a nominating petition.
Based on that reasoning, Cupp argued that Vernon’s petition to toss him off the ballot should be dismissed because she signed her suit Nancy D. Vernon, but her voter registration card read Nancy A. Vernon.
“It cuts both of us,” said Cupp.
“He’s turning your own argument against you if the voter registration card is the standard,” Wagner told Davis. “If it’s not the standard, then your argument is hollow.”
Davis, however, said there was a difference in the requirements for Cupp’s nomination petition and the petition Vernon filed against him.
Wagner also called the challenge of names that did not appear exactly as signed on the voter registrations cards, “a bunch of silliness.”