Holmes v. Begin

I respectfully dissent because I do not believe our election laws allow the state’s political parties to nominate candidates for public office who were ineligible to file declarations of candidacy for such an office as of the deadline for doing so.

Background

On August 16, 1996, this court issued an order disqualifying David E. Houle (Houle) as a candidate for the office of State Representative in Representative District No. 61 (covering portions of the towns of North Smithfield and Burrillville). Our reasoning was that Houle was ineligible to file a declaration of candidacy for that office…