Jackson Free Press

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi Supreme Court is considering a challenge by a Chicago businessman who's trying to get listed on the state's March 8 Democratic primary ballot for president.

Three justices heard arguments Wednesday from attorneys representing Willie Wilson and the Mississippi secretary of state, but did not say when they would rule.

Wilson's attorney, Sam Begley, said he thinks the Mississippi Democratic Party and the secretary of state are violating Wilson's constitutional rights by leaving him off the ballot. The party initially rejected Wilson's petition to be listed, saying he submitted too few signatures. Party chairman Rickey Cole later contacted the secretary of state and said to list Wilson, but absentee ballots had been printed.

Begley asked justices to order the secretary of state to produce and distribute a new ballot that lists Wilson.

"We're not asking anything too burdensome," Begley said.

Harold Pizzetta, an attorney representing the secretary of state's office, said it's too late to list Wilson because absentee voting started Jan. 23 for military and overseas voters. Such voting is required to begin 45 days before an election.

"You cannot have early voters voting for one slate of candidates and later voters voting for a second slate of candidates," Pizzetta said.

Mississippi law says the secretary of state puts nationally recognized presidential candidates on the state's Democratic and Republican primary ballots. Other presidential candidates can get on the ballot by submitting a petition with at least 500 signatures, and the signatures must be evenly divided among the five congressional districts that Mississippi had two decades ago.

Democrats listed on the presidential primary ballot in Mississippi (http://1.usa.gov/1Q8gEEa ) are Hillary Clinton, Roque 'Rocky' De La Fuente, Martin O'Malley and Bernie Sanders. The ballot was prepared before O'Malley, a former Maryland governor, left the presidential race. De La Fuente petitioned to be listed.

In an interview Wednesday, Cole said the Democratic Party rejected Wilson's petition because it had too few signatures from an old north Mississippi congressional district. He said several days after party leaders made that decision, Begley showed him a nonbinding legal opinion that the state attorney general's office issued several years ago, which said the 500 signatures could come from anywhere in the state. Based on that, Cole said he contacted the secretary of state's office and requested that Wilson be listed, but that was after absentee voting had started.