Update: Newt Gingrich also failed to qualify for the Virginia primary in March.
Rick Perry failed to submit enough signatures to get his name placed on the Virginia primary ballot. This situation was not intentional. According to the Washington Post:
Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry failed to submit enough valid signatures to qualify for the Virginia primary ballot, state GOP officials said Friday evening.
Perry’s campaign told state election officials it had submitted 11,911 signatures, but a Republican source familiar with the situation said that the Texas governor did not submit the required 10,000.
Earlier Friday, the Republican Party of Virginia certified former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and Rep. Ron Paul (Tex.) to appear on the March ballot.
Four candidates — Romney, Perry, Paul and former House speaker Newt Gingrich — turned in thousands of signatures by the deadline Thursday.
State party officials are spending Friday certifying the signatures. They have not examined Gingrich’s signatures yet, but expected to do so by late Friday night. His campaign said it submitted 11,050 signatures .
Update, 6:30 p.m.: Jerry Kilgore, former attorney general and chairman of Perry’s campaign in Virginia, said in an interview Friday night he did not know how many signatures were submitted. He said he was disappointed, but that qualifying for the Virginia ballot is a “daunting task.”
Perry will just have to run in other primaries since Virginia is now unattainable. Did he have that many Virginia supporters? Where is Bachmann? Santorum? Are they still in the race?
Meanwhile, expect everyone to turn out for the primary. What does one have to do vote in the primary? They have to be a registered voter. Yes, Democrats and Independents can help Republican decide who to wins the primary. Last presidential primary, no one would be tempted to play games because in doing so you gave up your voting rights to do nefarious things like trying to throw an election with bogus votes. However, this time the Republicans are at a disadvantage. Everyone can vote. I probably won’t bother. I know what the punishment is. 50 million robo Republican robo calls for the general election in the fall.
