Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli will reportedly file emergency legislation in an attempt to get more Republican presidential candidates on the Virginia primary ballot in March, Fox News reports.
Texas Governor Rick Perry, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum and former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman did not submit enough signatures from Virginia residents to qualify for the ballot.
Mr. Perry filed a lawsuit against the Virginia Board of Elections earlier this week in an attempt to either get on the ballot or prevent the board from taking any action regarding the issuance of absentee voting ballots in January.
“The Virginia Republican Party may inform the Virginia Board of Election which candidates it seeks to have on the ballot despite the statutory ballot access requirements,” said Ray Sullivan, Mr. Perry’s campaign communications director, in a statement earlier this week. “Gov. Perry’s suit seeks to have the Virginia statue held unconstitutional and requests the Party to have him listed on the Republican primary ballot,”
Reportedly the other four candidates left off the ballot have joined the Texas governor in his lawsuit against the state.
“Recent events have underscored that our system is deficient,”said Mr. Cuccinelli in a statement Saturday. “Virginia owes her citizens a better process. We can do it in time for the March primary if we resolve to do so quickly.”
The state of Virginia has some of the most stringent primary ballot requirements in the nation, requiring candidates to submit 10,000 signatures from each of the Old Dominion state’s 11 congressional districts.
Mr. Perry’s campaign team only turned in a little over 6,000 signatures by the mid December deadline.
Only former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and Texas congressman Ron Paul submitted enough signatures by the deadline.
Mr. Romney took a shot at Mr. Gingrich for failing to qualify for the primary ballot in the state in which he resides. He compared the former House speaker to 1950s television star Lucille Ball, star of “I love Lucy.”
Mr. Gingrich lives with his wife Callista in McLean, VA, and appeared in the state several days before the deadline to attempt to acquire more signatures.
A spokesman for Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell defended the state’s primary ballot rules, and essentially said the requirements have been known “for years.”
“”Virginia’s laws regarding ballot access are well known and have been in place for many years,” said McDonell spokesman Tucker Martin in a statement obtained by Fox News. “All candidates seeking to be listed on the Virginia primary ballot in a statewide race have known the requirements well in advance. It is unfortunate that this year, for whatever reasons, some Republican candidates did not even attempt to make the Virginia ballot, while others fell short of submitting the required number of valid signatures.”
Virginia is considered a swing state in the upcoming general election, and its unique position on Super Tuesday in March would be a loss to the Republican candidates that still have a fighting chance after the early primaries, if they are not able to be included.
