FAIRFAX, Va. — A Democratic candidate for the Fairfax County School Board is back on the ballot after a judge ruled Wednesday election officials had improperly discouraged her from submitting additional signatures in support of her candidacy.
Last week, Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Richard E. Gardiner invalidated a page of signatures in the petition Marcia St. John-Cunning submitted to represent Franconia on the county school board because she had incorrectly listed her address. As a result, St. John-Cunning fell below the total number of signatures required to establish a candidacy in Virginia and the Fairfax County Office of Elections determined she was disqualified to be on the ballot.
The Fairfax County Democratic Party said St. John-Cunning, who worked for Fairfax County Public Schools for more than 20 years, asked Gardiner to reconsider. On Friday, Gardiner denied that motion – saying the law was “very clear” that a candidate’s correct address had to be on every page.
However, during the course of the hearing on St. John-Cunning’s motion, both she and a second school board candidate, Seema Dixit, who is also running as a Democrat, said they had attempted to submit additional pages of signatures in March before the deadline to do so had expired and were told by an employee at the elections office that it wasn’t necessary. Both women said they would have submitted the signatures otherwise.
On Wednesday, Gardiner ruled that St. John-Cunning’s due process rights had been violated by the elections office.
“The registrar should not have, in any way, discouraged the candidate from filing them,” he said.
As a result, Gardiner said he would order the elections office to accept the two additional pages of signatures from St. John-Cunning as though they had been submitted on time in March. St. John-Cunning’s attorneys filed a draft order with the court clerk’s office shortly after the hearing and said they were hopeful the elections office would act swiftly once Gardiner signed it. Elections officials testified Friday and said they'd determined the additional pages contained 17 valid signatures — enough to put St. John-Cunning back over the number required to qualify as a candidate.
The complaint seeking to keep St. John-Cunning off the ballot was filed earlier this month by the 8th Congressional District Republican Party after early voting had already begun. Fairfax Republicans had hailed Gardiner’s ruling last week, calling it a “clear victory for the rule of law.” It was not immediately apparent Wednesday whether Republicans intended to mount further legal challenges to St. John-Cunning’s candidacy.