Missing the mark

By Vivian J. Paige

While many were preparing for Christmas, a 5 p.m. deadline last Thursday had political watchers captivated: contenders for president had to file petitions in order to be included on the primary ballot in Virginia.

Three Republican candidates - Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum and Jon Huntsman - failed to submit petitions at all. By the early hours of Christmas Eve, only two Republicans - Mitt Romney and Ron Paul - were left standing, the petitions of Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry having been found lacking.

Only Barack Obama submitted signatures for the Democratic primary, which will, as a result, not be held.

Virginia will be a participant in "Super Tuesday" this cycle. Ten states will hold primaries and caucuses on March 6, 2012. These nominating contests will allocate 526 delegates, a significant portion of the 1,212 delegates a candidate needs in order to win the Republican nomination.

So how did Virginia manage to reduce voter's choices from seven to two? The easy answer is to blame the petition requirements.

Section 24.2-545 of the Virginia code lays out the procedures for a presidential primary. Among them are the requirement that candidates submit petitions containing the signatures of at least 10,000 "qualified voters, including at least 400 qualified voters from each congressional district."

Compared to other states, Virginia's petition requirements might seem onerous. However, an identical requirement exists in Section 24.2-506 of the code for candidates for the United States Senate and Virginia governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general, and there has not been a lack of candidates for those offices.

Further, it is interesting to note that candidates in previous primaries had little trouble obtaining the signatures for inclusion on the ballot.

In 2000, for example, Alan Keyes, Gary Bauer and Steve Forbes managed to submit the required petitions. In 2004, Al Sharpton, Dennis Kucinich and Lyndon LaRouche made it to the ballot. The ballots in 2008 included Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani on the Republican side and Kucinich and Bill Richardson on the Democratic side.

Although convenient, it is hard to argue that the petition requirements themselves are the root of the problem. Candidates who lack the organization to obtain the signatures might be, though.

In its memo to the candidates, the Virginia State Board of Elections warned that people who are not registered to vote will often sign petitions. The SBE recommended that the campaigns obtain 15,000 to 20,000 total signatures, with at least 700 from each congressional district. Although petitions are submitted to the SBE, the responsibility for verifying the signatures falls to the party, in this case, the Republican Party of Virginia.

The RPV issued its own memo to the campaigns, saying that they should submit 15,000 signatures, including 600 from each of the congressional districts. Romney submitted 16,026 signatures, Paul 14,361, Perry 11,911 and Gingrich 11,050. The party then verified all of the signatures on each candidate's petition.

It is this verification process that created the firestorm in Virginia - and it will likely only be resolved in the courts.

In the past, the parties routinely certified candidates for office as long as they submitted the required number of signatures. A lawsuit filed in October 2011 and still pending brought about the change in the procedures used by the RPV.

For the first time, the RPV compared petition signatures to voter registration lists. Those that did not match, particularly those without addresses on them, were thrown out.

Already there is talk of a challenge to the RPV certification, with the former chairman of the Democratic Party of Virginia, Paul Goldman, joining forces with the Republicans to try to get the other candidates on the ballot. If necessary, the group plans a court challenge.

At this point, though, the choice is either Romney or Paul. And forget about a write-in: Virginia law doesn't allow it.

Vivian J. Paige writes about local politics and other topics at blog.vivianpaige.com. Email: blog@vivianpaige.com.