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It's Hard Getting On The Virginia Ballot

06 Nov 2007 09:34 am

Today is Election Day in the Commonwealth across the water from the Watergate, and if predictions hold true, the hue-shifting will continue: Democrats are poised to take control of the State Senate (unless immigration gets in their way, which is possible).

But this is a presidential column, and here is a Virginia-related presidential tidbit.

To be a certified presidential candidate and to be eligible to receive delegates on February 12, candidates have to gather 10,000 signatures by hand and separate them for each county.

At least 400 sigs have to come from each Congressional district. Candidates usually gather well more than 10,000 because the state scrutinizes the names very closely.

They're due in mid-December.

The Giuliani and Romney campaigns tell me they're on track... no word from the Thompson campaign at the moment.

As for the Democrats, the Clinton, Obama and Edwards campaigns all report steady progress toward the goal... but it's an onerous process that's taking up time and resources that could be otherwise devoted to Iowa and New Hampshire.

Comments (5)

Marc,

Just got back from voting. The Romney campaign was the only one working at my polling place. I signed the petition. I have to admit, in the rain, cold weather and wind, I was impressed that she was even out there.

Do you think its this strong grassroots effort is why Governor Romney is doing as well as he is?

I was getting signatures at one of the polling places in Fairfax County. I was there at 6 am with all the wind and rain, but I got lots of signatures! Thanks everyone for your support!

I only saw a petitioner for Ron Paul at my precinct. I have little doubt of Paul making ballot access as he'll have the Libertarians out doing it, and that's the one campaign task they know how to do.

As an aside, I know people collecting ballot access signatures for Obama and they're saying they've already met the goal - and I'm guessing without taxing the national campaign staff (meaning it wasn't a drain on Iowa and New Hampshire resources).

I voted yesterday at precinct in Eastern Henrico where I was greeted by a very polite (but wet) Romney circulator. No signs of any other campaign. Looks like Romney is not only the best organized campaign in IA and NH, but VA too.

The Stafford Romney petiton gathers seemed to be the only ones working the polls in our county save one lady whos objective was to get 25 signatures for Obama, it took her about 6 hours to get those signers. She told me they were "way behind" We gathtered 187 signatures at the same poll she was working.