It was with a heavy heart when we told you that former Rep. Jim Traficant (D-OH), released last year from prison, was denied a position on the ballot for his old House seat.
But don’t count Jim out quite yet. Traficant’s allies yesterday filed an appeal, according to the Youngstown Vindicator. They’re arguing that the elections boards that rejected his petition used “vastly overly stringent standards” when determining which signatures were valid.
Traficant came up 107 signatures short, although that number shrank after the elections boards recounted the number of votes in the last election. The number of required signatures is equal to one percent of the votes cast in the last election.
Traficant was kicked out of the House in 2002 after he was convicted of 10 felony counts including bribery and racketeering. He served seven years in prison.
Interestingly, Traficant’s hearing before the House ethics committee was the last time the committee held a trial, until the current proceedings against Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) began yesterday.
