State Senator Eric Tarr (R-Putnam)
CHARLESTON – Democratic state Senate candidate Zachary Abbott has agreed to be removed from the Nov. 3 ballot after Republican Sen. Eric Tarr filed a lawsuit alleging his opponent had not lived in the district long enough to qualify for office.
Kanawha Circuit Judge Kenneth Ballard entered an agreed order October 16 directing Secretary of State Kris Warner to withdraw Abbott’s certification and directing ballot commissioners to remove his name. Votes cast for Abbott will not be counted.
Abbott agreed not to contest the petition without admitting its factual allegations were true. The agreement resolves the ballot challenge without an admission that he misrepresented his residency.
Tarr (R-Putnam) filed the emergency petition October 13 in Kanawha Circuit Court, naming Abbott and Warner as respondents. He argued Abbott failed to meet the state Constitution’s requirement that legislative candidates live in the district they seek to represent for at least a year before their election.
The 4th Senate District includes all of Mason County and portions of Cabell, Jackson and Putnam counties, according to the petition. Tarr still faces Libertarian nominee Stephanie Butcher in the general election.
At the center of Tarr’s challenge was a Scott Depot house Abbott listed as his mailing address when he filed for office January 31. The candidate information attached to the lawsuit identified his residence as Scott Depot and his county as Putnam.
Tarr alleged Abbott had been at the Wells Hollow Road property to perform remodeling work, not to live there. The petition said property owner Deborah Barker had not given Abbott permission to reside in the house or on the property.
“All of these facts contradict Abbott’s representation that he was a resident at this property or that he even had permission from the owner to reside in this home,” the petition states.
The filing relied in part on sworn statements from Putnam County Prosecuting Attorney Kristina Raynes and her partner, Xerxes Rahmati, who lives on the same dead-end road as the disputed property.
Raynes identified Tarr as “a personal and family friend” and said he contacted her August 24 about a discrepancy in Abbott’s candidate filing. According to her affidavit, an earlier screenshot listed the Scott Depot address but incorrectly identified the county as Kanawha rather than Putnam.
Raynes said she asked Rahmati whether he knew of Abbott living at the house. Rahmati told her the property had belonged to an elderly neighbor, Phyllis Vandale, who died in January, according to the affidavits.
Rahmati said he saw about three men working at the house sometime between January and March. When he approached them, one said they were working for Barker to prepare the property for sale, his affidavit states.
“I can estimate that the men were at the residence for a couple of weeks working before the house was listed to sell,” Rahmati said in the affidavit. He also said he spoke with an investigator from the secretary of state’s office Oct. 5 and relayed the information.
Raynes said she searched online property tax records and found Abbott had paid taxes in Kanawha County in 2025, with a Hopelawn Road address listed as his residence. She said a similar search in Putnam County returned no records under his name. Tarr cited those searches in arguing Abbott had not established residency in the district.
The petition sought a writ of mandamus, a court order compelling an official to carry out a legal duty. Tarr asked the court to require Warner to withdraw Abbott’s certification, direct local officials to remove his name from ballots and prevent votes for him from being counted. He also requested notices at polling places stating that Abbott was ineligible.
To support that request, Tarr’s attorneys cited a 2018 Kanawha County case in which Judge Carrie Webster found House of Delegates candidate Jesse Johnson ineligible because he had not lived in his district for a full year before the election. With early voting already underway, Webster ordered officials not to count votes for Johnson and to post notices informing voters. A copy of that order accompanied Tarr’s petition.
The agreement in Abbott’s case came before West Virginia’s in-person early voting period, which runs October 21 through October 31. Election Day is November 3.
Tarr was represented by Gretchen M. Callas and Michael Shane Harvey of Jackson Kelly in Charleston and by Eric S. Embree of Tyree Embree & Associates in Hurricane.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 26-C-1254
