January 10, 2012 - 12:10 pm
A big development in the lawsuit filed in Virginia by Texas Gov. Rick Perry and joined by Gingrich, Santorum, and Huntsman contesting the state’s ballot access requirements. The federal judge has just filed an order saying that there is a “strong likelihood that the Court will find the residency requirement for petition circulators to be unconstitutional” at the hearing scheduled for Friday. So it is very likely that there will be additional candidates on the Virginia GOP ballot besides Romney and Paul.
Here is a copy of Judge Gibney’s court order.
Because when the laws don’t fit your needs, ya know, just ignore them or have them waived away by a judge.
Seems to me striking down a residency requirement for exercising one’s First Amendment Rights is not having a law “waived”.
As embarrassing as it ought to be to these candidates that they couldn’t come up with “basic ground game,” I’m inclined to agree with you, Michael. It’s pathetic, but legitimate.
What a mess.
How do you remedy this?
Every wacko:
I would have tried to get on the VA ballot if I had known out of state petitioners are allowed. So, put me on!!!
Since these ballot access hurdles were set up to keep third party candidates off the ballot, I assume the judge will rule that any signatures gathered for non-Democrat/Republican parties must still meet that requirement. Can’t have any of this fee election stuff, just because we have to rig this one, can we?
Hey folks,
The issue appears to be whether or not the residency requirement for petition circulators, the folks who go around and collect signatures, is “unconstitutional.” It doesn’t relate to the resident Virginia voters who are called on to sign the petitions.
As Mr. Preston pointed out earlier, the rules related to gathering petitions were changed twice, the second time in November.
The whole situation could be considered as suspect!