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The United State Court of Appeal, Fourth Circuit, has denied an appeal by Rick Perry and the three other plaintiffs’ who filed suit to get on the Virginia GOP primary ballot. The circuit judges today said that, “For the reasons expressed herein, the court denies the motion for the requested injunctive relief.” They cited the impending deadline to send out absentee ballots, by Jan. 21. In the ruling papers, the judges also said, “Movant had every opportunity to challenge the various Virginia ballot requirements at a time when the challenge would not have created the disruption that this last-minute lawsuit...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s lawyers filed a motion with a federal appeals court Sunday, seeking to win him a place on the Republican presidential primary ballot in Virginia even though his campaign failed to gather the 10,000 signatures required by state law. On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge John Gibney ruled that Perry, Newt Gingrich and other candidates who failed to make the cut waited too long to pursue their legal challenges, which were brought as ballot printing was getting underway and the mailing of absentee ballots was about to commence. However, Gibney said Perry and the other candidates would...

....[Gov. Rick] Perry, a states’ rights advocate, along with former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, are challenging Virginia’s residency requirement for people who circulate ballot petitions. Candidates must collect 10,000 signatures -- at least 400 hundred of them from each of the 11 congressional districts. As of the deadline, only Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas qualified. Timing is critical. Officials at the State Board of Elections say they need to mail absentee ballots by Jan. 21 to get them out 45 days before...

DES MOINES — Virginia’s attorney general said on Saturday that he will propose emergency legislation to change the state’s ballot access laws in ways that would make it easier for candidates to qualify. The legislation would allow any presidential candidate to appear on the ballot for the state’s March 6 primary if they meet the requirements to qualify for federal matching funds. That would likely allow Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry to participate in the primary after both failed to gather the required signatures under Virginia’s current standards. “Recent events have underscored that our system is deficient. Virginia owes her...

Newt Gingrich said his campaign will likely join Rick Perry in challenging Virginia’s complicated elections rules, which allowed only two of the seven leading GOP candidates to get on the ballot for the Republican primary in that state. The former House speaker and the other candidates except Mitt Romney and Ron Paul failed to collect the required 10,000 signatures. “Gov. Perry filed a lawsuit, I think, where the judge has invited the other candidates to join the lawsuit, and I think we are going to, although that’s a lawyer conversation,” Gingrich told Fox News today. “I’m not in charge of...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry today filed an emergency motion in U.S. District Court in Richmond seeking an injunction ordering the State Board of Elections to print presidential primary ballots with his name. Perry filed suit in federal court Tuesday challenging his exclusion from the March 6 primary ballot, naming the three members of the elections board and Pat Mullins, chairman of the state Republican Party. Perry is urging a judge to bar the elections board and Mullins from enforcing the state residency requirement for people who collect petition signatures for ballot access.