HP.com: Virginia Primary Ballot Challenge: Judge Rules Against Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum & Jon Huntsman

[twa]

VA is an open primary state, right?

they require a loyalty oath ,unless that gets tossed

[DCsportsfan53]

they require a loyalty oath ,unless that gets tossed

At first I assumed you were joking but decided to see what google said. What a ****ing joke, how is that even enforecable and what kind of stones do you have to have to try and force people to agree to vote for your party's candidate in the Nov election, regardless of who it is, in order to vote in the primary? Gotta love the GOP.

[Larry]

At first I assumed you were joking but decided to see what google said. What a ****ing joke, how is that even enforecable and what kind of stones do you have to have to try and force people to agree to vote for your party's candidate in the Nov election, regardless of who it is, in order to vote in the primary? Gotta love the GOP.

Well, they want to prevent people from doing the kinds of things that they, themselves, actually do, and endorse.

Specifically, voting in the opposing party's primary, in order to stick said opposition party with an undesirable candidate.

Same reason they make candidates jump through hoops to get into the primary. Their intent was to let real Republicans, like Perry and Gingrich, onto the ballot, while excluding fake Republicans like Ron Paul. (Or Steven Colbert.)

[JimboDaMan]

At first I assumed you were joking but decided to see what google said. What a ****ing joke, how is that even enforecable and what kind of stones do you have to have to try and force people to agree to vote for your party's candidate in the Nov election, regardless of who it is, in order to vote in the primary? Gotta love the GOP.

Not enforceable in the slightest. But it makes them feel better. They do it because the more unbalanced in that crowd incessantly claims that Democrats cross over and mess things up by 1) voting for liberal RINOS or 2) voting for unelectable bat**** crazy right wingers, take your pick. I presume a handful of people actually do, but you can't even get people out to vote in the general election far less get enough mischief makers out to make any difference in a primary. But the oath is a joke, I can name at least two Republicans who, having lost in the primary, quit the party and ran as independents. So much for pledging to support the party nominee.

[Thiebear]

Va admits to counting differently for the first rine since

1980 and we blame national candidates for nOt making

A ballot for voters to have a choice?

This is va's fault! Get with the times or mice the

Primary to June so theres no need to vote.

[Larry]

Va admits to counting differently for the first rine since

1980 and we blame national candidates for nOt making

A ballot for voters to have a choice?

Actually, as I understand it, (admittedly, I'm not an expert), it's The Virginia Republican Party that changed. (And, by "changed", I mean "actually decided to pay attention, this year".)

Which, I have to confess, really icks me out. The very idea that the government elections offices are handing over election documents to a political party, and asking the Party to "grade these test papers for us"? Isn't this like a bank asking convicted embezzlers to count this money for us?

I had the same kind of feeling, when something came out during The Florida Election. Seems that one party (I think it was the Republicans) was running a deal for their partisans, where they'd help people request absentee ballots. They mailed out the pre-filled forms to everybody who was registered (Republican), with instructions like "if you want to vote absentee, just sign the form and mail it in". Which is perfectly legal.

But, when the forms arrived in the elections office, there was something missing. One blank on the form that was supposed to be filled out, but wasn't. (I think it was the voter's voter ID number, or some such.) The Republicans had forgotten to pre-print that information on the form.

So the elections office took all of the absentee ballot requests, invited the local Republican Party to send over some volunteers, handed the ballot requests to the Party volunteers, and left the office, so the Party could fill in the missing information.

I understand that it's not the voter's fault that the Party told them "just sign the form and mail it", but there was information missing. And that these weren't ballots, but only the forms for requesting ballots. And that the Party has access to this information. (Something that I also have a problem with. I don't think the government should be collecting my personal information, especially my voter information, and then handing this information over to the Parties.)

But still, I've got a problem with the idea of a county elections office literally inviting one of the Political Parties to come have a sleepover in the elections office with a pile of partially-filled-out, signed, absentee ballot requests.

[88Comrade2000]

You might be right 2000, but it is up to the people still

THEY have choices

No they don't.

Obama vs. Romney or Obama vs. Romney vs. Paul and/or Trump- not much of a choice.

Romney technically won't have the delegates until April. He has a long way to go to technically seal the nomination. Thing is, he will have no real opposition.

Paul- the only remaining candidate will race up some delegates as he tries to mold the platform in him image. The only question; when that fails, will Paul run third party?

Gingrinch- Despite a little surge again, he has fumbled badly by going liberal by opposing Romney with those Bain Capital. I think people are already turning against him, he was booed as some forum with Huckabee. He's done after SC.

Santorum- he's not a viable national candidate but now the the Christian right has said they will support him; he will be able to hang around until to super Tuesday.

Perry- not viable and never was.

Huntsman- not viable and never was

I figure after the voting next Satuday:

Romney- 35%

Santorum- 34%

Paul- 16%

Newt-7%

Perry- 6%

Huntsman- 2%

Perry, Huntsman drop out after South Carolina. Newt leans towards dropping out and is pressured but he decides to make his final stand in Florida, which will fail and he will drop out after Florida.

Romney will win most of the remaining primaries. Paul may win some caucuses. Santorum will be able to hang around but he will not win any states. He will drop out in April when Romney officially clinches the nomination.

[twa]

Pretty sure I can vote for whoever I want, but I obviously don't live in Va.

you get the govt you elect

[Larry]

Pretty sure I can vote for whoever I want, but I obviously don't live in Va.

you get the govt you elect

Yeah, I'm a bit surprised.

I know I was able to write in back when I lived in Virginia.

[JimboDaMan]

Pretty sure I can vote for whoever I want, but I obviously don't live in Va.

you get the govt you elect

This.

I'm not feeling the outrage here. It's a Republican primary, and the Republicans set up the rules by which candidates can qualify for their own primary. The rules were arguably not sensible, but they were clear. Not sure what the rules are for the general election, but there are other ways to qualify for the ballot. And, of course, you can write in Perry, Palin, Colbert, or Donald Duck if you so desire.

Although now I'm wondering who pays for a primary. If it's not the party, why can't the Colbertians hold their own publicly-funded extravaganza?

[Thiebear]

If i could write in i wouldn't complain as much, i read there is no write in for the Primary.

Candidates that did not meet that threshold will not be eligible to appear on the ballot. Reuters reports that Virginia Code Section 24.2-644© also rules out the possibly for write-in candidacies in a primary, stating, "At all elections except primary elections it shall be lawful for any voter to vote for any person other than the listed candidates for the office by writing or hand printing the person's name on the official ballot."

What this means is that Virginia voters will only be able to choose between former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, on March 6. No Democrat qualified to challenge President Obama, so the president automatically wins Virginia's delegates in the Democratic primary.

Republican establishment protecting themselves.. and get what they deserve..

[twa]

It's to keep out the riffraff and undesirables,I think one slipped by

[twa]

the game goes on.....calling the judges reasoning illogical and absurd was a nice touch imo

http://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/

In a motion filed at 7 A.M. Sunday with the Richmond-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, Perry’s legal team argues that it would have been too speculative for them to file suit before Perry failed to make the 10,000 signature threshold last month. Perry asks that his name be placed on the March 6 ballot or, at a minimum, that the printing of ballots be suspended until his lawsuit can be resolved.

Perry “filed this lawsuit on December 27, 2011, the same date the names of candidates qualified to appear on the ballot were scheduled to be certified and just two business days after Defendant Mullins made a preliminary determination and publicly announced Movant did not submit enough petition signatures to qualify to be placed on the ballot. Prior to this date, Movant reasonably expected to meet the requirements of Virginia’s ‘likely...unconstitutional’ election law, and Respondents could not have suffered any injury, as they could not have begun the process of finalizing their ballot orders,” the Texas governor’s lawyers wrote in their motion (posted here).

“Another illogical result of the District Court’s reasoning is that it would require [Perry] or any candidate for the Presidency, to pre-emptively apply for injunctive relief while there remains a possibility that they may collect the requisite number of signatures to appear on the primary ballot. This is absurd. Candidates for the presidency are focused on running for president, not on fighting legal battles to pre-emptively hold state election laws unconstitutional. When Movant filed his candidacy, he expected to be able to comply with section 24.2-545 of the Virginia State Code. [Perry] timely, and steadfastly, moved to protect his constitutional rights once his claim was ripe, and he cannot be charged with inexcusably or unreasonably delaying the filing of this suit,” the Perry motion said.

About 90 minutes after the motion was filed, the 4th Circuit issued an order requiring the state’s lawyers to respond to Perry’s application by Monday.

On Saturday, lawyers for Gingrich filed a notice of appeal of Gibney's ruling, but they took no immediate step to seek quick action by the appeals court.