Posted on 12/28/2011 7:17:08 AM PST by Kaslin
Yep. Exactly.
As a registered voter in VA...THIS will be the FIRST primary I refuse to vote in. EVER.
I’m pissed about this. Now that Cain is out (who I’d have voted for all the way to the top), I am for Newt who does have the most experience and is pro-Israel. I’m uninterested on both ballot choices we will have..and we cannot write in (total B.S.) So, first time ever I will not participate in primaries. It actually sucks.
Perfect. Shouldn't be more than several thousand natural-born over-35ers living in the US for at least 14 years who'd like to see their names on a ballot.
If Perry’s case wins, you may get your chance to vote for who you want. Let’s hope his case intervenes for Virginia voters like yourself.
5 months to gather 10,000 signatures.
Even Fred Thompson and Dennis Kucinich did this in 2008.
Get the feeling we have a lot of unserious candidates out there this time.
I hope so because locally here’s an article from a week ago where Newt is ahead in VA favorites:
http://www.ihatethemedia.com/wp-content/uploads/obama-bike.jpg
Worse...the reason he’s not on is (and it’s enrages me) they say they cannot “validate” that the signatures are authentic or that they are valid, registered voters. Well hell...that doesn’t stop most felons from voting, or illegal aliens...or democrats going from precinct to precinct to vote multiple times...but does keep the #1 guy Virginians like OFF the ballot.
You’ve no idea how peaved I am about this!
“As a registered voter in VA...THIS will be the FIRST primary I refuse to vote in. EVER.”
That is exactly what the GOP establishment wants you to do and your sitting out only emboldens them to do more things like this.
Virginia conservative Republicans should do the following in this election cycle:
1) After the holidays get on the phone and raise royal hell with the RPV. If you have made pledges for donations, threaten to withdraw them and that you will not donate anymore.
2) If this situation is not resolved and we are forced to vote for these two utter nitwits I say hold your nose and vote for Roach Paul who I think is a complete loon. But if he wins it will utterly humiliate and put a scare in the RINOs in the establishment. (I am for Newt too.)
3) If you are not active get active in your local party organization and clean out the RINOs at the leadership level.
OOPs! I pasted the wrong thing FUnny! That is a photo I put on another story of our “dear leader” HA! Here’s the correct one....
Thanks for the advice. Hold my nose and vote for the crazy? Well, not a bad idea. I’ll make a few calls too.
In 2008, they took all candidates on 10,000 signatures and did not verify even one signature. And this is the very first time they have ever compared eligibility by verifying addresses.
They also did a last minute change in the rules, just weeks before the petitions were due. Nobody had the ability to react in time to the new and ridiculous requirements.
What if they are wrong, and you get Paul elected anyway? Are you sure that Gingrich won’t have thousands go to his aid in Iowa? There are 40% who are still undecided and have not weighed in on this yet.
You are flirting with disaster and are being manipulated.
In a former life, I collected signatures for a third party ballot position in a small rural state. I would have been pleased if we had only been required to get 400. I went door to door in one small town and collected 20 in one hour.
Another guy on the team bettered that just by going into bars.
If somebody was conservative, they were generally happy to sign just to be offered another choice.
If someone told me they were a Republican, I would just ask "You're a fair minded person and support giving these people their own choice, don't you?" About 90% of them would then sign.
If someone told me they were a Democrat, I would tell them that this option would likely take away Republican votes and help their candidate. This only worked about 40% of the time, as most of them were either too dense to make the connection or thought signing might disqualify them from certain government bennies.
Long story short is that Perry and Gingrich are both trying to do what Al Gore did in Florida in 2000-- change the rules after the fact. This is not a particularly endearing quality for someone who wants to be Commander in Chief.
They recommended everyone submit 15,000 on the chance that up to a third might be bogus.
That is not uncommon.
The only thing that is uncommon is that the 10,000 number is quite a bit higher than most states.
Still with either a volunteer base, organized through the internet, or some money and organization it’s really not that hard.
Truth is I live in Virginia and I would not have signed to put either one on the ticket.
How did that happen? I mean, is write-in forbidden, or is it just not provided for? Which politicos need to be taken out back and shot for that decision?
Theoretical possibility, and always raised in the parade of horribles by the two establishment parties, but it tends not to happen in real life. There are many, many states with much easier ballot access rules than VA, and the specter of overloaded candidate lists just never happens.
And I'm not sure why it is this way. Maybe filling out even a simple application and paying a modest fee is just too much trouble. Maybe the financial disclosure rules put off those people who are only moderately skillful in hiding their financial skeletons. Maybe there really aren't that many people so narcissistic as to believe they can actually be president. Maybe there are a lot of people who’d rather just live their private lives in peace. Who knows.
So whatever the reason, the dreaded ballot overload problem is apparently a myth, and one perfectly suited to support the status quo. Which is how we got where we are now. Happy with that?
The fact is that Newt was in VA, a place he has lived in for the past 10 years, the day before the deadline frantically collecting signatures at two rallies. The campaigns were notified on March 6th about the rules and signatures could be collected beginning July 1st. Here in Fairfax County, the Romney and Paul campaigns were collecting signatures at our monthly GOP county meetings. The FCRC has over 600 members alone. We also had state elections in November with all of the members of the General Assembly up for reelection throughout the state. It would have been easy to collect signatures there as well.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
