8th District School Board candidate files petition to disqualify opponent from ballot

A Richmond School Board candidate is seeking to have his opponent disqualified from the ballot for only listing the year his voting rights were restored rather than the exact date on a required form.

The petition filed by 8th District candidate E.J. “Emmett Jay” Jafari in Richmond Circuit Court Friday says that when opponent P.H. “Cruz” Sherman filed his certificate of candidate qualification with the Richmond registrar in April, Sherman wrote that his voting rights, which had been revoked because he was a felon, had been restored in 1995. 

But the form, Jafari is arguing, asked for the “date” of rights restoration.

“The candidate did not satisfy the basic lawful requirements to run for public office by provision of a date certifying rights restoration or presentation of the dated certificate itself, or as prescribed by the laws of Virginia, and the registrar failed to perform his duty to reject the candidate’s form,” he wrote in the petition, which not only seeks to disqualify Sherman but also asks for Richmond Registrar Keith Balmer to be stripped of his oversight powers for the November election. 

Balmer said his office consulted with the Virginia Department of Elections and received guidance on how to properly handle the issue at the time.

Jafari has previously run unsuccessfully for office eight other times, and has filed numerous lawsuits against the city, including a 2014 suit related to his effort to unseat Circuit Court Clerk Edward Jewett.

Under Virginia law, anyone convicted of a felony loses their voting rights permanently. The only way to get those rights back is to appeal to the governor, who has the discretion to restore them or deny the request. 

All candidates for office in Virginia must be qualified to vote for that office. 

Sherman, a longtime employee of Owens & Minor, chaplain for the Richmond Police Department and founder of anti-gun violence group Virginians for Action, has been open about his criminal past. In several interviews with WTVR, he has spoken about his participation in a gang as a young man and his attempt to shoot someone while on probation. 

Asked about Jafari’s petition, Sherman said he could not comment as he had not yet seen the filing. 

Votes have already been cast in this year’s election: Early voting began Sept. 20. 

While courts may be reluctant to get involved with qualification disputes after the start of the early voting period, it isn’t unprecedented in Virginia: In October 2023, the Fairfax County Circuit Court disqualified a School Board candidate just weeks from Election Day because of an erroneous address on her ballot petition. The court later reversed course and reinstated her candidacy. She won. 

Certificate of candidate qualifications

In his petition, Jafari describes having repeatedly objected to Balmer’s acceptance of Sherman’s certificate of qualifications. 

Attachments show that on Aug. 2, Balmer sent Monique Semple, a specialist with the Virginia Department of Elections, an email asking about the situation.

“This particular candidate entered the year he got his rights restored (1995) but not the date,” Balmer wrote. “Is just the year a valid response for this question?” 

On Aug. 6, Semple replied that the form was intended “to provide information to the locality that demonstrates the candidate is qualified” under state law. 

“If your office can use that information to make a decision on qualification, then no amended form is required,” she wrote. “However, if your office requires additional information to make a qualification determination, you may reach out to the candidate to ask for additional information/documentation or to require an amended form.” 

The registrar’s office later amended Sherman’s certificate of qualification to state his voting rights were restored May 8, 1995. 

Jafari says that amendment was illegal.

“No lawfully authorized extension of the time to submit the form was granted and modification of the form, or the content thereof, absent requisite authorization, is unlawful, and renders the forms void,” he wrote. 

He describes the amendment as part of a “conspiracy” by Balmer to favor Sherman in the election, alleging that the registrar also rejected some of Jafari’s filings because they lacked a date and identified him on an electoral information mailer as “Emmett Johnson Jafari” rather than “E.J. ‘Emmett Jay’ Jafari,” the name he requested and is using on campaign literature. 

Balmer said he was not aware of the petition “and therefore cannot offer any comments on the matter.” 

However, he noted that he had consulted the Virginia Department of Elections on amending the form, “and per their guidance, it is permissible to amend a candidate qualification form after submission.” 

Jafari’s name “appears on the ballot as per his request,” he wrote in an email, attaching a copy of an 8th District sample ballot that lists him as “E.J. ‘Emmett Jay’ Jafari.” 

In an email, Jafari said he had no other comments beyond the filing and that apart from issuing a press release about the petition, “we don’t wish to try this matter in the press.” 

However, he also wrote, “Given the documented animus that our campaign has already experienced we were left with no option to pursuing judicial action.” 

This story has been updated to clarify that Jafari was listed as Emmett Johnson Jafari on an electoral information mailer, not a sample ballot.