However, when five candidates that otherwise appear to be in the final running are disqulified, simply because 20% of the addresses do not agree, someone is screwing with the process.
When i ran for office years ago, i did not go out to get as many signatures as i could, I simply got enough, and a few more for insurance. NO doubt here the candidates that did get over 10,000, assumed they had enough valid ones, and they would have, if the rules were not changed to allow deletions based on address of registrant.
The petition I was working for was going up against the entire force of the state government which was in opposition. They insisted we obtain 10 percent of the total ballots that had been cast in the previous election, in every district in the state, under their new petition legislation.
We ended up getting 50 percent of the total, and it didn’t matter how many they invalidated, we had 2x as many as we needed in every district.
This is VA - Newt’s home state. 20 percent + wasn’t enough of a buffer, and I could have told you that from the start. You need 50 percent.
But then, what do I know? I’m used to working for professionals, not presidential campaigners.
3 didn’t even try to get petitions. “Only” 2 were disqualified.