"Expedited"

We got bad news today.

It was only an oral argument on a "pending Motion for Expedited Proceedings" so we couldn't "lose" the case, and we didn't, but we definitely lost on that motion.  The result means our candidates will most likely NOT appear on the 2026 general election ballots, at least not on the original absentee ballots required to be sent out at least 45 days prior to a general election under the federal Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act on September 19th.

Let's start with a review.  We have no attorney, our "state chair" is representing himself as both a candidate for the US Senate and the founder of of the Conservative Party of Delaware.  We have no resources to hire an attorney and this is a hobby we do as volunteers for free at best and at our own expense at worst.  We don't expect to win these elections, but our candidates are passionate residents of this state and citizens of this country and we believe in their right to contest these elections even if they don't win them.

We've lost plenty of elections, we know there can be value in losing.

The short version is that upon filing our nominations in time for the statutory deadline, they were rejected on the basis that our state chair has not been consistently registered "conservative" according to Department of Elections voter databases, and so therefore cannot be the state chair, cannot submit nominations, cannot be the treasurer of our established campaign finance political committee or administer the user account associated with it to submit the required reporting.  Instead a new organization that assembled four registered conservatives in a library and affiliated with the national "American Solidarity" party was allowed to take over the political committee in the campaign finance system and based on nothing but their assertion alone block our submitted nominations.

These restrictions and requirements are not based on a plain reading of the existing law, and even after complying with them our nominations are still being rejected.

Our state chair is suing in Delaware's Superior Court seeking a clear explanation of the law and a writ to require the state government, specifically the Department of Elections and the State Election Commissioner, to follow the law.  A hearing today was held on a "Motion for Expedited Proceedings" that was filed alongside the complaint.

This motion was a mistake, and any hope of "expedited" may have always been a Catch-22.

Delaware's Superior Court has no explicit mechanism for "Expedited Proceedings", and that was essentially the subject of the hour-long hearing.  It was our hope that the general message of "this is urgent, please help us go fast" would be communicated clearly and interpreted charitably to move things along, but intervening events rendered any possible relief from such a motion beyond reach.

The Commissioner's immediate response to the initial complaint was to move for its dismissal.  We have responded to the opening brief and agreed on a briefing schedule that, if it had started when we agreed to it would have finished briefing by September 14th.  Our hope was to consolidate the motion to dismiss with some kind of hearing and schedule to also address the narrow statutory construction issues of the case.

• Are Delaware political parties required by law to only elect state committee members registered to vote with their own party?
• Are minor political parties in Delaware with limited resources and few active members required by law to host elaborate conventions that adhere to strict procedural requirements or are they free to make their own internal organizational decisions?

If those requirements don't exist, we believe there is no further basis for rejecting our nominations.  If those requirements do exist, then more complex questions regarding whether or not our historical practices strictly adhere to those requirements become relevant.

But even those narrow issues were not addressed today and will not be addressed before the pending Motion to Dismiss our entire case, which will not finish briefing until September 17th now, and a hearing and ruling will not immediately follow.  Under the most optimistic schedule and hoping against hope, the Motion to Dismiss might be denied quickly enough and with sufficiently thorough reasoning that the Commissioner realizes his position is hopeless and our nominations are immediately accepted in time to be included on absentee ballots.

That's extremely unlikely, just because the Motion is unlikely to be heard and decided that quickly.  The Superior Court has murderers to try and criminals to prosecute and their calendar is not at the whim of pro se civil litigants.  Even if the dismissal is rejected, that does not oblige the Commissioner to do anything except finally answer the initial complaint within 10 days.  Dismissal might not be rejected.

In any event, the most likely outcome at this time does not include our nominated candidates appearing on the initial absentee ballots which will be sent out after next week.  Our candidates may still appear as declared write-in candidates, they may eventually appear on the ballot in time for early voting and/or in person voting on election day, and supplemental absentee ballots can be sent out after the federal deadline if necessary.  Given the shenanigans and inevitable accusations of fraud expected to come with the MAGA 2.0 midterms, serious thought will have to be given to how much we want to feed that, even if we're right and our impact minimal.

The Catch-22 arises from a bunch of legal shit that basically means a different court might have been able to go faster, but it would have been WAY more expensive to file in, might not have had jurisdiction to order the Commissioner to do anything, and trying to give it jurisdiction might have required proving Superior Court couldn't solve the problem in time as a starting point.  It's all too much for a single volunteer with a paralegal certificate and a shoestring budget.  Without a lot of donations coming in very fast with the explicit purpose of gambling on long odds, it isn't going to happen.

The issue will inevitably continue, even if this case is dismissed, because as things stand the law is still unclear and does not immediately agree with the interpretation of the official charged with enforcing it.  The CPD political committee treasurer still does not have access to the party's political committee.  There will be another election requiring the same issue to be adjudicated on a less compressed timeline in 2028.

But we do not anticipate the clean recognition of our nominations to come through in time for our candidates to appear normally on the ballot on equal terms with the rest.  That ideal was out of reach from the moment our candidates were initially rejected, but has grown much dimmer after today.

I, as the "state chair", own that failure.

I owe the voters an apology for that.  I thought I knew the rules and that I was following them.  I still think I know the rules and I still think I'm following them, but I overestimated my ability to convince the State to follow the rules as I understood them in the necessary timeframe.

I owe Jon an apology for that.  I told him the deadline for nominations, collected the paperwork from him in time and submitted it, confident that would be enough.  It wasn't and I let him down.

I'm not giving up though.  There will be a next election and knowing what these rules actually are is still important, and the Commissioner is not providing answers.

Delaware Senate Candidate Sues Election Commissioner

DOVER, Del. — August 19, 2026 — William McVay, the founder and authorized representative of the Conservative Party of Delaware, has filed suit in Delaware Superior Court against State Election Commissioner Anthony Albence, seeking to affirm his authority to represent the party and submit candidate nominations on its behalf.

The lawsuit challenges the Department of Elections' decision to refuse nomination certificates submitted by McVay as the authorized representative of the Conservative Party of Delaware political committee and revoke his access to the state filing system.

McVay says the decision was made without his knowledge or authorization. The Department later briefly restored his access to the committee's state filing system, but subsequently refused to accept nomination certificates first submitted in January by McVay for the 2026 election.

In July, McVay attempted again to file certificates nominating himself for the United States Senate and Jon Roe for Attorney General on the Conservative ballot line. The Department refused to accept the filings, citing requirements concerning party affiliation and convention procedures.

The dispute has now reached the courts.

"This is not about my own ballot access," McVay said. "The question is whether a political organization in Delaware actually has the right to determine who represents it, or whether the State can decide that someone else controls it without telling the organization, without identifying a lawful mechanism for transferring that authority, and without giving the existing representative an opportunity to contest it."

McVay established the Conservative Party of Delaware political committee in 2022 as an independent organization intended to provide an alternative ballot line for candidates who wanted to identify as conservative without being part of the Republican Party. The Department subsequently recognized McVay as the party's representative and accepted Conservative Party nominations under his authority, including nominations for the 2024 election.

The party's governing structure did not create automatic membership based on voter registration, an organizing convention, or a mechanism allowing outside members to replace its governing authority. This structure was deliberately created to ensure neutrality and fiduciary representation for the nearly 900 registered conservatives and the candidates seeking ballot access in the state while they remain ineligible for the filing fee-gated, taxpayer-funded, and state-operated primaries hosted on behalf of the major parties.

"Other minor parties in Delaware have frequently been subject to the whims of a small cadre with an overabundance of time on their hands," McVay said. "It's all too easy to manipulate arcane party rules with ballot access and thousands of dollars of party funds at stake."

McVay therefore disputes the Department's conclusion that a purported party gathering could transfer control of the organization to someone who had never been authorized to govern it.

The Department's position has also prevented McVay from using the separate Non-Partisan Delaware ballot line to nominate candidates. In correspondence following his July filings, Commissioner Albence stated that McVay was not affiliated with the Non-Partisan Party and therefore could not submit party-related materials on its behalf.

The lawsuit asks the Superior Court to declare the rights of minor party governing authorities and the limits of the Commissioner's discretion and require the Commissioner to perform his statutory duties with respect to McVay's nomination filings and the political committees he represents.

McVay said the case has implications beyond the 2026 election.

"Minor parties should not have to guess whether the ballot access they built yesterday will still belong to them tomorrow," McVay said. "If there is a lawful way to transfer control of a political party, the State should be able to explain what that process is. If there isn't, a person shouldn't be able to acquire control simply by claiming that a convention happened."

McVay is proceeding without counsel.  Filing fees and service of process were covered by contributions from the Attorney General nominee Jon Roe and the Libertarian Defense Fund PAC.

About the Case

William McVay v. Anthony Albence,
in his official capacity as
State Election Commissioner of Delaware
(K26M-08-018 JJC)

Delaware Superior Court
Complaint for Declaratory and Mandamus Relief

The complaint seeks judicial clarification of the authority governing minor-party organizations, the State's treatment of their authorized representatives, and McVay's ability to submit nominations on behalf of the Conservative Party of Delaware and other ballot-qualified organizations.  A full conforming copy of what was filed with the Superior Court is attached.

Media Contact:
Will McVay
302.670.1971
mcvay.will@gmail.com
info@conservativede.org

"Conservative"

Before MAGA, "conservative" used to mean something.

It meant responsibility.  It meant accountability.  It meant sticking with what works without the constant need to change things in order to look like you're "doing something".

Now, it means whatever the increasingly incapable libertine in the White House says it means, and state Republican Parties very much including Delaware's have fallen prey to this toxic movement and it's the reason they're stuck at 40% of the vote and a dwindling minority of state legislative seats.

The Conservative Party of Delaware aims to reverse that trend by offering conservative candidates an alternate means to ballot access without the gatekeeping of Delaware's MAGA Republican minority.

We can be reached directly on Facebook.