CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Former state delegate Elliott Pritt remains on the November General Election ballot for now.
Pritt was arrested last week and charged with enticing a 15-year-old Fayette County girl into a sexual relationship. Pritt resigned from the House of Delegates Monday and made an appearance in federal court to dismiss his preliminary and detention hearings. He’ll remain in U.S. Marshals custody while he faces a federal investigation.
While he resigned his seat, Pritt remains on the ballot because he ran unopposed in the May Republican primary. He has not withdrawn from the ballot yet.
West Virginia Deputy Secretary of State David Cook joined MetroNews “Midday” to break down Pritt’s ballot options. One option would be for Pritt to remove himself from the ballot by choice.
“Del. Pritt has until August 11 to voluntarily withdraw, from the ballot,” Cook said. “He would have to send a notarized statement of withdrawal to our office.”
However, there’s a wrinkle to that withdrawal, thanks to recently passed legislation in West Virginia. House Bill 4550, which went into effect last January, would prohibit the state Republican Party from appointing a replacement candidate if Pritt were to voluntarily resign.
Cook said there’s another avenue to remove Pritt from the ballot. He said someone could file a request with the State Election Commission to disqualify Pritt as a candidate.
“That request has to occur by the withdrawal deadline, August 11,” Cook explained. “Then the State Election Commission, which has quasi-judicial powers, will take a look to see whether he is disqualified and make a ruling in that regard.”
While Pritt remains behind bars, Cook said that alone does not disqualify him from ballot eligibility. Pritt has yet to be indicted; he was arrested after a criminal complaint was filed. Cook said a court has to find Pritt guilty, or he has to plead guilty, to a felony in order to become ineligible.
“The fact that he’s been charged with a felony doesn’t necessarily render him ineligible,” Cook said. “There has to be an adjudication by a court of law, or he has to make a plea to that felony charge.”
Cook said there’s been instances before where candidates have become ineligible after ballots have been distributed.
“We’ve had orders come out after the absentee ballots have gone out,” Cook said. “Some circumstances, corrected ballots are sent out, or there’ll be a notification stating that Del. Pritt is not on the ballot and you should not vote for him.”
Meanwhile, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Southern West Virginia is gathering evidence for an indictment against Pritt.
“We’re going to present an indictment to the Grand Jury, we’re going to do that quickly,” U.S. Attorney Moore Capito said on MetroNews “Talkline.” “I think that, as you saw, our office acted very quickly with this criminal complaint to get Elliott Pritt off of the street, because every day that he was on the street, and every day that a child predator is on the street, is one day too many.”
Appellate Chief Jennifer Herrald is helming the case. Capito said he has faith in her to prosecute Pritt.
“(She) works on these cases day in and day out,” Capito said. “She’s so committed to children in the state of West Virginia and making sure that we have those that prey upon them pulled off the street.”
Capito said the office wants to act quickly with its indictment but simultaneously wants to make sure that all evidence has been collected beforehand. He admitted that Pritt’s quick arrest, based on a criminal complaint rather than an indictment, wasn’t necessarily common practice.
“Oftentimes there will be an indictment and then there’ll be an initial appearance, an arraignment, and a detention hearing,” Capito said. “In this case, we felt, given the gravity of the situation (it was necessary). To be honest, this doesn’t necessarily have to do with who the perpetrator of the crime is.”
Capito did not comment whether or not there could have been other children involved in Pritt’s alleged misconduct.