The Virginia Republican Massacre - The Plot Thickens UPDATED

◼ Prior to November, 2012, any Republican turning in over 10,000 raw signatures was considered to have met the Virginia state requirements for inclusion on the ballot. At some point in November, the State Board of Elections made a change to their internal rules. The minimum number of required signatures was kept at 10,000 but the Board decided that the cut-off for automatic qualification would be changed to 15,000. - Wolf Howling

(T)here really isn’t a path out of here that doesn’t involve lawsuits.

◼ Gingrich Doesn’t Make Republican Primary Ballot in Virginia - Bloomberg Business

◼ Did the VA GOP change the rules on primary ballot access in November 2011? - Moe Lane

Richard Winger over at Ballot Access News has an ◼ EXTREMELY interesting post (link via here) on the mess that the Virginia Republican party has found itself in over… access to the ballot in Virginia. For those coming in late, background here and here: the very short version is that the VA GOP only certified Mitt Romney and Ron Paul for its primary ballot. Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich both had too many signatures tossed; Jon Huntsman, Rick Santorum, and Michele Bachmann didn’t even try. Of the seven candidates, one (Romney) had more than enough signatures (15K) to bypass the verification process entirely. All of this has caused a lot of agitation among Republicans following the primary process, of course; and not just from people who disapprove of what the VA GOP has done. There has been a good deal of defending of the outcome; and one argument heavily used in this defense has been that the campaigns all knew the rules and that previous Republican campaigns were able to get on the ballot, so clearly a competent current Republican campaign should have done so.

One small problem with that: as Winger argues, the rules were allegedly drastically changed. In November of this year.

◼ Newt Gingrich, Quite Properly, Criticizes Virginia Ballot Access Laws - Richard Winger/Ballot Access News

◼ UPDATE: ACTION ALERT: Virginia GOP Changed Ballot Access Rules at Last Minute; Here's How to Contact Them Now and Demand Changes - Doug Ross

(T)o contact the Virginia GOP:
• Email: Contact Form
• Phone: 804-780-0111
• Fax: 804-343-1060
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/VirginiaGOP
• Twitter: @va_gop