Virginia Attorney General Intervenes in Primary Ballot Dispute; Update: Maybe Not
**Written by Doug Powers
Possible good news for any GOP candidates not named Mitt Romney or Ron Paul that might still be in the running by the time March rolls around:
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is intervening in the Virginia presidential primary dispute and plans to file emergency legislation to address the inability of most Republican presidential candidates to get their name on the ballot, Fox News has learned.
Only Mitt Romney and Ron Paul qualified for the Virginia primary, a contest with 49 delegates up for grabs.
The failure of other candidates to qualify — notably Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry — led to complaints that the 10,000-signature requirement is too stringent.
Cuccinelli, who is a Republican, shared the concerns.
“Recent events have underscored that our system is deficient,” he said in a statement. “Virginia owes her citizens a better process. We can do it in time for the March primary if we resolve to do so quickly.”
[...]
Sources told Fox News that Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell is expected to support the emergency legislation as well.
As we talked about a few days ago concerning the Rick Perry lawsuit, changes would have to take place quickly:
Section 24.612 of the Virginia State Code says: “The electoral board shall make printed ballots available for absentee voting not later than 45 days prior to any election.”
That means absentee ballots must be mailed to voters – such as Virginians serving in the military — no later than Jan. 21.
The legislature does not convene until Jan. 11. To make the change, lawmakers would have to pass emergency legislation — a bill that goes into effect immediately upon the governor’s signature, rather than on the customary enactment date of July 1.
Update: Cucinelli has second thoughts.
**Written by Doug Powers
Twitter @ThePowersThatBe
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Good! I love AG Cuccinelli! We will see if those who are not on the ballot there will make it to VA if this gets passed?
L
On the one hand, the rules are the rules and everyone knew what they were going in.
On the other, the people of Virginia shouldn’t be denied the chance to vote for who they want.
This definitely makes sense. If only two people were able to qualify, there is obviously a flaw in the system. We already keep too many flawed systems in place simply because it has “always been done that way”. Time to clean house on all the outdated and ridiculous rules and this is a good place to start. It will also highlight what can be done in a reasonable length of time without a lot of bickering. Imagine that!! A role model for Congress to follow!
Do other states have similar rules?
Wonder if Mitt will double down his attack against Newt for not being organized enough to get the VA sigs?
Wonder how the Ds will spin this?
AG Cuccinelli was at the RightOnLine Conference and I fell totally in love with him! He is the real deal and is another very GOOD possiblity for future POTUS. In my opinion, he is Marco Rubio caliber.
This whole story is just a real drag. Don’t ANY of the other candidates have their act together?
The next time the Progressives turn the election process on its ear so things can be “fair” everyone supporting this little slight of hand can just shut up.
Cuccinelli needs to keep his nose out of this one. He sounds and acts like Algore in Chadgate. I’ve no problem changing the Ballot Access requirements, but do it BEFORE you start the game. It’s not a flawed system so much as flawed organizations of the candidates.
Happy New Year from Virginia Beach, VA.
I read somewhere that Virginia only had about 140K Republicans voting in the last primary. Kinda makes it hard for anyone not well funded, or having the Paul ground game, to get 10K valid signatures. All these candidates are competing for the same small pool of possible signatures.
I have to agree, as much as I would like other choices than Weathervane Mitt and crazy uncle Ron, the rules were known and the others failed to follow through.
I’m leaning that direction to. I assume the signiture requirement has been in effect for a long time, so why is this the first election where it’s a issue? Is the requirement really too stiff, or as dan708 said did the candidates just drop the ball?
Even if their concerns are legit, a Republican AJ and Gov changing the rules two months before the primaries just doesn’t look good. I’m looking for more “ACORNish” election manipulation from the progs and gerrymandering from the White House supervised census this year. IMHO, we need to stay squeaky clean and keep an eye on the progs. This one’s going to be close.
Ditto! Why have rules when they can just be tossed aside for expediency. This is the same attitude that is attacking our Constitution on a daily basis.
Too bad we can’t get “do-overs” on the 2008 election.
Gotta scoot, but I want to say Happy New Year’s Eve to all here on MM. Stay safe and enjoy your evening. May 2012 be a much better year and may we get bho and mo out of OUR HOUSE in 2012! Lets hope that we all have God’s hand to give us wisdom to take back our Republic in our voting. God bless America, our military, all here on MM, and all who come to look.
L
Just one man’s opinion, it just didn’t look good at all with just your crazy uncle Ron and Mitt (RINO, more at Obama-Lite) Romney the only names on the ballot. That DID look like the the establishment ramming RINO Romney (I was for abortion before I was against it.) down Virginians’ throats. I do hope Virginia really does get something done.
F Rick Perry and any other “conservative” who doesn’t understand you don’t give taxpayer money to illegal aliens for f’ng tuition.
That’s what the Democrats are for. Idiot.
Perry needs to start dressing in polka dot pajamas and a big red nose so everyone can clearly see that he’s a clown.
There’s hope for Virginia yet!
I admire Cucinelli’s responsiveness in a matter he could have so comfortably ignored.
LET THE VOTERS DECIDE.
A joyous New Year’s party you won’t remember tomorrow I wish to all!
I love Texas and Texans, but so far they have yet to make a decent president.
I suspect the problem in Virginia isn’t only the 10000 number but also the requirement for 400 signatures from each congressional district (in Moron’s…oops I meant Moran…. district in Northern Virginia, other than the Paulbots and Romneyacs are there 400 other Republicans, especially conservative Republicans?)
I don’t know if Virginia rules are much different or whether it matters but I’ve been involved in several elections in MA where I was involved in collecting and proving signatures against the official listing of qualification (official registered voters list e.g.) before submitting them. We even crossed out those we knew were not qualified and so we were always prepared to contest any any disallowed signatures. Couldn’t they have done this in VA? Do they just ask any 10,000 people to sign and turn them in?
I really don’t like changing rules after the fact just because the outcome was unacceptable to some people. In this case, Romney and Paul have the best ground organizations in the pack and it paid off for them. Them are the breaks.
Every single major candidate in 2008 seemed able to suss enough of them out to qualify. Even Fred Thompson, who put about as much effort into his campaign as WarEagle does into his wine pairings.
Now can they do something about the silly loyalty oath, especially in a taxpayer-funded primary? There is 0% chance I will vote for 0bamao, and the oaths are non-binding, but I still find it objectionable.
MacEamonn, P.Phil, Chapoutier,
The only explanation I can think of then is the earthquake changed the VA water !
On December 31, 2011 at 04:26 pm, Hangfire said:
That’s because I haven’t run yet.
Sorry, but we should follow the rules in place. If candidates do not follow the rules, then they are just as bad as the libs they are running against. I may be wrong about Virginia, but you should still have a write-
In capability.
Happy New Year to all from 35,000 ft above the Great American Heartland. God bless all including Southwest Airlines WiFi and my new IPad.
Man, I love this country!!!
Chap???? WTF????
Happy New Year to ALL of my MM bothers and sisters!! May the new year bring lots of great discussions and problems solved. I do think we will take a big step in getting our country back in 2012. The SC will throw out odumbocare and the Obama’s will head on out into the trashheap of history…as is the fate of marxists all over the world.
Stay safe and we will hook up again in 2012, refreshed and ready for the fight.
I did the math so you wouldn’t have to. Using data from various sites on the interwebs, in 2008, 3.7 million Virginians cast ballots. Since 69% of registered voters went to the polls, that means that Virginia has about 5.4 million registered voters, or those who are eligible to sign ballot access petitions. The enormous requirement of 10,000 valid signatures means the candidates must get about 0.19% of registered voters to sign. That’s closer to ZERO than 1%.
Sorry Ken, you got it wrong, unless by “our system” you meant the organizations of the candidates, then I agree it is deficient. If Cuccinelli submits Emergency Legislation, it faces an even tougher battle as it must gather a supermajority of four-fifths votes from the House and the Senate as well as Governor McDonnell’s signature, according to the state constitution. With a 20-20 split in the Senate, they’d need 12 democrats to support this so-called emergency. Highly unlikely in my estimation.
From Virginia Beach, VA, I sincerely wish one and all a happy, prosperous and fullfilling New Year.
Happy New Year to all!!!
(except you know who)
Chappy?
I hardly recognized you!
I was already gathering signatures for Cain when he dropped out. The ones who did not get them did not try hard enough. I hate having to choose between Weathervane Mitt and crazy uncle Ron.
chappy, long time no see, so to speak
Happy New Year Everyone!
Most of the candidates ARE as bad as the libs they are running against.
No write-in for the GOP primary and you’ll have to sign a pledge.
There will be the opportunity for a write-in in the general in November.
Sarah Palin is the only one who could pull that off.
#25 On December 31st, 2011 at 7:57 pm, happyscrapper said:
Betty Ford sends everyone home for the holidays.
Happy New Year everyone. Hope for the best; expect the worst.
Good to see Chap back for as along as his parole lasts.
I’m sure that the AG would be rushing to court to try to “correct” this law if Paul failed to meet the requirement.
Happy new year to everyone here at MM.
There’s music in the streets and the youngest one and Mrs P are dancing on the porch.
No matter what, and I hope it turns out well for conservatives in 2012, enjoy the love family brings you. Now back to watching two of my favorite people dancing on the porch.
I hope that the Virginia AG, Ken Cuccinelli, looks at this again and does nothing. The rules were known beforehand. Gingrich and Perry are acting like Democrats. I have lost any remaining respect I had for either of them.
If the rules need changing/updaing then that should be done going forward, not as a convenience to candidates that failed to put in the required effort to comply with the rules.
Oops. Sorry about the above post… Can’t help but appreciate the irony of Mr. Perry, who ostensibly detests “frivolous lawsuits”, filing this VERY frivolous lawsuit.
9:46 pm, Last Massachusetts Conservative said:
My feelings exactly, who wants vote for people don’t know enough to get on a primary !
two others made it .
“O, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand,
Between their lov’d homes and the war’s desolation;
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the heav’n-rescued land
Praise the Pow’r that hath made and preserv’d us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!”
1814, Francis Scott Key
Happy New Year Everyone!
Happy New Year, friends.
In the case of Gingrich, would you be so quick to keep him off the ballot if his failure to get the signatures was the result of fraud – especially if that fraud was paid for by some liberal or Romney or Paul?
Your position sounds like some ‘zero tolerance policy’. Those work just great… right up until dishonest people figure out how to exploit them.
Dr. Paul’s a liberal?
An informed voter would at least glance at his considerable voting record.
Apples to oranges Dancer. If it’s fraud, then take it to the courts for relief. AG Cuccinelli wants to change the rules after the game is over to affect the outcome. He can do it if he so choose, but the Constitution of the Great Commonwealth of Virginia has set a very high bar. First he’ll need a supermajority of four-fifths votes from the House and the Senate. Good luck with that Ken.
Hangfire, Hawaii hasn’t produced a “decent” president, either. LOL. /Sarc Tag (in case the Sarc police are out and about today).
HAPPY 2012 EVERYONE!! This is the year we take back our country and KEEP it, starting in June with Obamacare!!
GOD SAVE OUR REPUBLIC…AND MAY JUSTICE PREVAIL!!
*A Happy, Healthy, and Blessed New Year to all, and especially to one of the few wholly principled conservative pundits we have left, Michelle Malkin!
*If it is to be Happy, He shall, through those that believe; 2012 will continue the economic war, the cultural war, and the explosion of a world wide holy war; Real leaders that believe will emerge, not from within DC, as we well know, but from the great heartland; That is my hope and prayer for this New Year!
How many states have stupid laws designed to keep those elected in power or allowing them to move up the chain of elected offices? How far has gov gone from what we the people can influence? We have lots of work to do at the community and state level to keep more crap from going to DC. I’m tired of suffering from the voting mistakes of others and tired of those who lose seats morphing into other gov paid positions.
As it is written, so shall it be!
Neither has Kenya nor Indonesia.
I live here because the gal I married is from here.
But I’m Texican by birth, by God!
I can’t believe anyone would not see this as an instant disqualifier!
How inept do you have to be to not make getting on the ballots your first job as a candidate.
What a bunch of crybabies!
We do not need an incompetent POTUS. It would kill real conservative forever, to be represented by someone so dumb they couldn’t even get on the ballots.
But I guess winning and actually being conservative is less important to some people than beating Romney.
Stupid is, as stupid does.
You call running to civil court for a ruling after the election some sort of ‘relief’? The whole debacle comes down to the fraudulent actions of one Gingrich campaign worker. If that person was paid/is a mole/etc. to commit the fraud in order to keep Gingrich off the ballot, waiting until after the election to prove it hands the fraudster a de facto victory.