UPPS--Virginia changed ballot access rules last month over prior law suit.

[oreo]

There are currently many news stories and blog discussions about the Virginia presidential primary ballot access law. Some large blogs, such as Red State, have over 300 comments about the story. Some defend the current Virginia ballot access laws on the grounds that in past presidential elections, a fairly large number of Republican presidential primary candidates managed to qualify.

But what has not been reported is that in the only other presidential primaries in which Virginia required 10,000 signatures (2000, 2004, and 2008) the signatures were not checked. Any candidate who submitted at least 10,000 raw signatures, on notarized sheets, and which had at least 400 signatures from each U.S. House district, was put on the ballot. In 2000, five Republicans qualified: George Bush, John McCain, Alan Keyes, Gary Bauer, and Steve Forbes. In 2004 there was no Republican primary in Virginia. In 2008, six Republicans qualified: John McCain, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, Rudy Giuliani, and Fred Thompson (an earlier version of this post erroneously said Alan Keyes qualified in 2008, but he only qualified in 2000).

The only reason the Virginia Republican Party checked the signatures for validity for the current primary is that in October 2011, an independent candidate for the legislature, Michael Osborne, sued the Virginia Republican Party because it did not check petitions for its own members, when they submitted primary petitions. Osborne had no trouble getting the needed 125 valid signatures for his own independent candidacy, but he charged that his Republican opponent’s primary petition had never been checked, and that if it had been, that opponent would not have qualified. The lawsuit, Osborne v Boyles, cl 11-520-00, was filed in Bristol County Circuit Court. It was filed too late to be heard before the election, but is still pending. The effect of the lawsuit was to persuade the Republican Party to start checking petitions. If the Republican Party had not changed that policy, Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry would be on the 2012 ballot.

The Democratic Party of Virginia has been opposed to the strict law on primary ballot access, and has been in the habit of collecting signatures for all Democratic presidential candidates recognized by the party. In 2008, the state party collected 7,300 signatures for all its candidates, thus easing the burden on them and requiring them to collect only 4,000 to 5,000 on their own.

» VA GOP Changed Ballot Access Rules Last Month - Big Government

Well I must admit I was scratching my head over only 2 out of 8 GOP Presidential candidates qualifying for the primary ballot in Virginia--as to why there was never any problem in the past with qualifying ALL GOP candidates. Apparently--after this independent who was running for the state legislature sued the state GOP in October of 2011--they got busy and started checking all the petitions LAST MONTH.---

NOW IT MAKES SENSE! And that is WHY Virginia only has 2 GOP candidates to select from on their primary ballot this year--LOL. To the state GOP in Virginia--you guys deserve the "butterfly ballot award" over this one--LOL.

 

[occupied]

Ouch, that's gotta sting.

 

[occupied]

Disgruntled third party candidate here we come.

 

[oreo]

Disgruntled third party candidate here we come.

Well you've got to admit--this is the icing on the cake. This news gets out that they never scrutinized ballots previously and just dumped 6 GOP candidates over a law suit during the fall of this year--is probably--not going to make a lot of voters happy.

Furthermore--you'll note that the DNC in this state actually helps ALL democrat candidates collect signatures--and here you have the State GOP knowing that they've got some serious trouble with the ballot this year--and just sits on their asse's and does nothing to help out--knowing that they are going to have to go through them with a magnifying glass. NOT GOOD.--and only 2 candidates make it on the ballot--LOL

 

[occupied]

Disgruntled third party candidate here we come.

Well you've got to admit--this is the icing on the cake. This news gets out that they never scrutinized ballots previously and just dumped 6 GOP candidates over a law suit during the fall of this year--is probably--not going to make a lot of voters happy.

Furthermore--you'll note that the DNC in this state actually helps ALL democrat candidates collect signatures--and here you have the State GOP knowing that they've got some serious trouble with the ballot this year--and just sits on their asse's and does nothing to help out--knowing that they are going to have to go through them with a magnifying glass. NOT GOOD.--and only 2 candidates make it on the ballot--LOL

It does have the smell of the same kind of election rigging antics that the GOP usually reserves for democrats.

 

[occupied]

There's also this:

Gingrich: Campaign worker’s signature fraud cost slot on Virginia ballot – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

Now claiming a paid campaign worker turned in phony signatures.

 

[oreo]

There's also this:

Gingrich: Campaign worker’s signature fraud cost slot on Virginia ballot – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

Now claiming a paid campaign worker turned in phony signatures.

That doesn't surprise me in the least. But--the problem here is the State GOP that set these regulations in place--didn't enforce them when they wrote them--went through a couple of election cycles--everything appeared to be going a long just fine. No one was getting booted off the primary--because they didn't meet one of the requirements--and now ALL of a sudden Virginia is finally enforcing it's own botched election regulations.

They have disenfranchised thousands of voters in their own stew.

 

[JoeB131]

There's also this:

Gingrich: Campaign worker’s signature fraud cost slot on Virginia ballot – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

Now claiming a paid campaign worker turned in phony signatures.

That doesn't surprise me in the least. But--the problem here is the State GOP that set these regulations in place--didn't enforce them when they wrote them--went through a couple of election cycles--everything appeared to be going a long just fine. No one was getting booted off the primary--because they didn't meet one of the requirements--and now ALL of a sudden Virginia is finally enforcing it's own botched election regulations.

They have disenfranchised thousands of voters in their own stew.

Now, Oreo, you have to look at this like a Newt Hater. It's all Newt's fault. Newt should have known that this crazy rule change was going to be tossed in at the last minute.

I still think that this has a lot more to do with Establishment types trying to grease the skids for Romney, but whatever the cause, it's a terrible optic.

 

[Claudette]

Can the folks in VA write in on a primary??