Santorum and the Indiana primary ballot
Voters in Indiana have until March 1st to file challenges against Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum’s eligibility to be included on the ballot for the May 8th Indiana Republican primary election.
Mr. Santorum was disqualified from having his name listed on the Indiana ballot after he was unable to submit enough signatures to qualify, according to Indiana Election Commission rules.
Indiana’s Marion County Board of Voter Registration issued the original disqualification to Mr. Sanortum’s eligibility for the ballot, after he failed to submit enough signatures to qualify.
Candidates are required to submit 500 signatures from each of Indiana’s nine U.S. House districts to qualify for the Indiana Republican primary election ballot.
Last week, the former senator challenged Marion County’s claim that he did not submit enough signatures to qualify for the state’s primary ballot.
The Indiana Republican primary election does not occur until May, and there are still more than 20 upcoming primary elections prior to Indiana.
However, all of the remaining candidates have pledged to stay in the race all the way through the Republican National Convention in August.
If the primary race continues to stay as close as it is now, the delegate votes in Indiana would become crucial for the former Pennsylvania senator.
There are a total of 46 delegate votes available in Indiana, which the Republican National Committee designates as a “winner take all” state, similar to Florida.
“Rick Santorum‘s a natural fit for the state of Indiana,” said Hogan Gidley, National Communications Director for Mr. Santorum. “We expect to take his message of smaller government, manufacturing, bringing back those jobs that have been lost to China, and of course the social issues that are important to all Americans, to all the voters.”
Mr. Santorum’s campaign team is 8 signatures short of the 500 required from the Marion County district, The Associated Press reports.
The former senator’s campaign team stated last week that the Marion County Board of Voter Registration unfairly disqualified them from the ballot. The board reviewed Mr. Santorum’s submitted signatures, and declared that too many of them were invalid.
The dispute will now be handled by the Indiana Election Commission, who will have to vote on whether or not Mr. Santorum’s name will be listed on the Indiana Republican primary ballot.
The Romney factor in Indiana
Republican front-runner Mitt Romney poses the biggest threat to Mr. Santorum’s candidacy hopes in the primary race, and coincidentally he poses a threat to Mr. Santorum’s hopes of being listed on the primary ballot in Indiana.
Mr. Romney’s Indiana campaign co-chairman, Dan Dumezich, also happens to be one of the four members of the Indiana Election Commission.
The Romney surrogate stated Tuesday in several media interviews that he would be an impartial authority concerning Mr. Santorum’s dispute.
Mr. Dumezich will participate in the vote to decide Mr. Santorum’s fate in Indiana, according to The Associated Press.
The former senator will not be listed on the Virginia Republican primary election ballot on Super Tuesday.
If he is also unable to get listed on the Indiana ballot, he will find it hard to obtain enough delegate votes to win the pre-existing 1,144 majority votes needed to win the Republican presidential nomination.
