Posted on 01/17/2012 3:31:51 PM PST by Quicksilver
A federal appeals court in Virginia today denied an emergency request by Republican presidential hopefuls Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich to be placed on the ballot for the Virginia primary.
After failing to get the required 10,000 signatures necessary to be placed on the ballot, the two candidates argued that Virginias strict ballot law was unconstitutional.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit agreed with a lower court and ruled today that the candidates had waited too long to file their suit.
The court ruled unanimously that Perry and the other candidates 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 has.
The court said that if it had ruled in favor of Perry, then it would encourage other candidates for president who knew the requirements and failed to satisfy them to seek at a tardy and belated hour to change the rules of the game.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Being that the Texas GOP Primary in not until sometime in April, a long time after Perry drops out, I have plenty of time to decide however, it will most likely be Gingrich or Santorum.
The fact only Romney and Paul will appear on the ballot makes me want to puke... BUT...
The candidates were at fault here, for not having had the people on the scene in VA to obtain the required number of signatures to get them onto the ballot.
They fell short because they didn't properly plan... and now we in VA are stuck with the two worst in show.
They've now proved that the man has an exceedingly high tolerance for political corruption and misbehavior.
What more do we need to know.
“why are they held in states that rarely go GOP in the general election,”
Welcome to the United Soviet States of America..where the Pravda State Media vet the candidates to the pleasure and needs of the RinoCrat UniParty.
This election will be a non-election...featuring the state approved candidates-whose only distinction is whether they are black or white.
your eyes are opening , grasshopper...
At the same time this is all of a piece with running for a federal office, not the local dogcatcher.
The Court followed the Law but ignored the Constitution.
LOL! It is hard to believe these candidates teams didn’t meet the requirements. Of course, it is the voters who are hurt most by the ruling.
Can’t voters just write in their candidate of choice?
I’m not sure if I agree with the political corruption and misbehavior part of it, but I do think the manly thing to do in Romney’s case would be to make it known that he did not approve of the process there, and perhaps even withdraw from it.
At the very least he should make it known that he doesn’t approve of what took place.
There may be political corruption and misbehavior there. A judge didn’t think so, but judges can get it wrong.
In life F-ups do take place. At times that’s all they are. It could be more than that here, but I’m not convinced of it yet.
Thanks for the comments. I can understand where you’re coming from.
Mitt has no choice but to withdraw from the Virginia primary. Else he supports what turned out to be a corrupt practice (at least in appearance, and probably in fact).
His own Chairman was involved in this.
Here's where Romney really fails. He has no moral center that tells him certain behaviors by underlings appear to be IMMORAL.
That's in line with him ending up raising taxes on the blind, a small thing, no doubt, in his eyes, and in the eyes of many of his supporters on FR, but a very good example of what we'd see in a Romney regime.
The party bosses don't want to be bothered with public opinion ~ as should be perfectly clear by now.
Did you realize that the laws we are dealing with popped up under DEMOCRAT governors.
The judges didn't want to do their Constitutional duty.
And who are you? Do you live here? Did you have SKIN IN THE GAME?
I have a very special rough cut piece of timber for you to get your ride out of the state.
The 10th Amendment has to do with a wide variety of other matters not otherwise identified as federal questions.
You should read the Constitution some day.
The guy with the lawsuit isn't concerned with the numeric standards ~ his concern was with validation processes, and simply raising the number doesn't really address that question.
It did the address the issue of Romney probably not having 10,000 valid names and addresses.
Okay, then what you seem to be saying is that the Republican party leadership only wanted Romney and Paul on the ballot, and they were willing to do just about anything to make that happen. Do you really believe that?
Yes.
Well, you may very well be right. I don’t share that view, but I’ve been wrong before. Take care.
Party primaries are not part of the “Presidential Elector selection process” and are not prescribed in the Constitution.
Furthermore, it party primaries have nothing to do with the 14th Amendment either.
Instead, party primaries are prescribed parties and by state legislatures and that is why there is a wide variety of primaries and caucuses.
Some states have primaries, some have caucuses and some have open primaries and some have closed primaries.
There is not Equal Protection in the party primary process and that is why a party can hold a closed primary where they can exclude certain citizens from voting.
“I have a very special rough cut piece of timber for you to get your ride out of the state.”
Ok, thanks for letting me know. The next time I am in Virginia, I will take note and have a laugh.
However, earlier you implied that the Virginia GOP Primary rules were the toughest in the nation and are therefore unconstitutional and you were not able to cite the part of the US Constitution that deemed tough rules to be unconstitutional.
Can you please cite the “Tough Rules” clause in the Constitution?
Gingrich, who also signed onto the suit, is a Virginia resident and has been for quite some time.
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