Judge upholds Paul-Romney-only ballot in VA
A federal judge has upheld the legitimacy of the Virginia GOP Primary ballot which will only allow the choices of Mitt Romney and Ron Paul. Others who failed to meet Virginia GOP Primary rules will not be included and no write-ins are allowed in Virginia Primaries.
Fox News reports,
A federal judge has ruled that Rick Perry and three other Republican presidential candidates will not be added to Virginia’s primary ballot.
District Court Judge John Gibney Jr. rejected their requests, arguing that they filed their challenges to Virginia’s stringent ballot requirements too late.
“They played the game, they lost, and then they complained about the rules,” he said.
The decision means — for now, anyway — that Perry, Rick Santorum, Jon Huntsman and Newt Gingrich will be left off the March 6 ballot after failing to meet a state requirement to collect 10,000 signatures in support of their respective campaigns.
The judge said the campaigns had from July to mid-December to obtain the signatures, and could have challenged the requirement during that period. “The plaintiffs knew the rules months ago,” he said.
An appeal seems likely. Perry’s attorney is arguing this is a U.S. constitutional issue which transcends the State party. If so, and this case makes it to the supreme court, there could conceivably be uniform national requirements placed on State primary and election practices in the future.