Romney and Paul had to (and did) collect all new signatures.
Here is the form they had to gather the signatures on:
http://www.sbe.virginia.gov/cms/documents/20120306SBE-545_legal.pdf
Note it says: “the Presidential Primary Election to be held on March 6, 2012.”
The RPV says it checked the signatures with “signature-by-signature scrutiny “. They spent 7 hourse checking Paul’s signature.
I’m sure you’re mistaken that obvious things- like “st” instead of “street”- mattered.
Paul and Romney’s pre-existing organizations made all the difference, unfortunately...
I don’t live in VA, so I don’t know, but typically a computerized system will match up the exact address as written by the voter on the petition with the address they have on file. Also, this is an open primary, so Dems were signing up as well. And who knows what they were writing.
But as you say, the organizations of Romney and Paul (since they had run and collected signatures there before) made all the difference.
However, I believe the close scrutiny of signatures actually came into effect after the Romney/Paul signatures had been checked. I could be wrong on this; I am simply gleaning this from the fragmentary reports that appear in the press.
In that case, subjecting them to different standards would certainly be illegal.
Whatever the case, I think they should both withdraw, because while the intention of the law may have been good (making sure signatures were legit), its effect combined with the wierdness of having to get a certain number in each county makes it clear that the main agenda was for Party Central (either GOP or Dem) to be able to control the potential nominees.