A federal inmate who received more than 40 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary in West Virginia has ties to New Mexico — including multiple runs for office in the state.
Keith Russell Judd is in a federal prison in Texas after making a threat at the University of New Mexico in 1999. It is unclear what type of threat Judd made, but he has made multiple appeals and frivolous lawsuits in the intervening time — so many that judges have ruled that he has to pay fees before he can file any more lawsuits. Some of these lawsuits include references to the Secret Service.
Here’s an example of a court filing on Judd’s filings:
Appellant Keith Russell Judd has thus far filed thirty-six notices of appeal. Fifteen have been dismissed for being frivolous, for lack of jurisdiction, or for lack of prosecution. Judd also has filed no less than 180 motions, and sent at least 47 additional documents upon which no action was taken.
This blog quotes a broken link which says:
“On September 27, 1999, the petitioner was convicted by a jury of two counts of mailing a threatening communication with intent to extort money or something of value in violation of 18 U.S.C.§ 876. See United States v. Judd, 252 F.3d 435 (5th Cir. 2001) (per curiam) (not published) (affirming conviction and sentence). Because of various aggravating factors that increased the offense level by a total of eighteen and the criminal history category from one to four, the petitioner was sentenced to 210 months’ imprisonment.”
Despite this record, and because of virtually no campaigning in the state by Obama, Judd received the votes of more than 40 percent of the Democratic electorate in West Virginia. Of course, voters were likely not actually voting for Judd but instead casting ballots against Obama.
Obama received just 25.77 percent of the vote in the 2008 primary, while Clinton received more than two-thirds of the vote.
Obama notably had problems gathering votes in the rural, heavily white area of Appalachia in 2008, causing reporters to ask about Obama’s “Appalachian problem.”
Previous electoral runs
In 2008, Judd managed to get on the Democratic Party ballot in Idaho according to the Associated Press.
It’s Judd’s second presidential bid in Idaho, the newspaper said Wednesday. In 2004 he declared as a write-in candidate for president, which requires only the submission of a declaration, and didn’t get any votes.
Those runs were not Judd’s first forays into elective politics, as he ran three times as a write-in candidate in New Mexico.
In 1993, Judd ran as a write-in candidate in the Albuquerque mayoral election. Martin Chavez won that election in an upset, beating former Gov. Dave Cargo narrowly.
In 1994, Judd filed as a write-in candidate for governor in the Republican Primary and received 57 votes. Gary Johnson won that election and went on to become mayor governor.
And as a write-in candidate for mayor of Albuquerque in 1997, Judd received 50 votes and came in last place out of 8 total candidates. Environmentalist and former state Land Commissioner Jim Baca ended up winning that election.
Despite getting over 15 percent, it is unlikely that Judd will have any delegates represent him at the Democratic National Convention this fall. The Associated Press:
If he receives 15 percent of the state vote he will qualify to receive delegates to the national Democratic convention. But state Democratic Party Executive Director Derek Scarbro said no one has filed to be a delegate for Judd, and the state party was unaware that Judd has actually filed the required paperwork.
This is the same problem that anti-abortion candidate Randall Terry ran into in Oklahoma.
Wallace Collins, chairman of the state party, said that Mr. Terry failed to produce required paperwork and missed a March 15 deadline to identify a delegate. “Nobody in the state of Oklahoma said ‘I pledge to be a delegate for Randall Terry,’ ” said Mr. Collins, who sent Mr. Terry a certified letter on Friday.
In other words, this is a moot point — but a show that there are pockets of America that will vote for anyone except for Obama — even if they have no idea who they are voting for.
And it wasn’t like Obama was going to compete with Romney in West Virginia anyway. McCain carried 56 percent of the vote in the state in 2008.
The presidential election will not be decided in the mountains of Appalachia but instead in swing states like Ohio, Florida and Virginia.
Federal prison inmate , of Texas, won 72,459 votes (40.6 percent) in Tuesday's West Virginia Democratic presidential primary, behind President Barack Obama, who finished with 105,833 (59.4 percent). 

Judd qualified to appear on the West Virginia ballot after completing a notarized certification of announcement and paying the required $2,500 filing fee. Although surpassing 15 percent of the vote qualifies him for a  delegate, according to Democratic Party Executive Director Derek Scarbro, Judd did not specify a delegate slate and will likely not be awarded a delegate.  
West Virginia Democratic primary by county. President Obama won the counties in black while Keith Judd won the counties in red.
Judd has run several unsuccessful write-in campaigns for  of  and  of New Mexico, and appeared on the 2008 Idaho Democratic primary ballot, winning 734 votes. He was sentenced to 210 months of prison in 1999 after being found guilty of "mailing a threatening communication with intent to extort money or something of value" at the . He is currently serving his term at the .

Though federal law prohibits felons from voting in elections, they are still eligible to run for office. Judd is not the first prisoner to run for president. In ,  of the  ran a presidential campaign from prison after being prosecuted under the . He won nearly a million votes.

According to Democratic consultant Mike Plante, "most of the people who were casting a vote for Keith Judd, it was not a vote for him, it was a vote expressing dissatisfaction with the president." One West Virginia voter expressed this sentiment, telling the Associated Press that he "voted against Obama" because "I don't like him. He didn't carry the state before and I'm not going to let him carry it again." In 2008, Obama finished with only 25.77 percent of the West Virginia primary vote, losing to Hillary Clinton.

Though Obama has faced some challenges in the Democratic primaries, losing 18 percent to anti-abortion activist  in Oklahoma, losing nearly 12 percent to attorney  in Louisiana, and having 18 and 21 percent of Democrats in Alabama and North Carolina vote "uncommitted", he has already won enough delegates to secure the Democratic nomination.