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"They knew the rules in Virginia many months ago; the limitations on circulators affected them as soon as they began to circulate petitions," he writes. "They plaintiffs could have challenged the Virginia law at that time. Instead, they waited until after the time to gather petitions had ended and they had lost the political battle to be on the ballot; then, on the eve of the printing of absentee ballots, they decided to challenge Virginia's laws. In essence, they played the game, lost, and then complained that the rules were unfair." ~Judge Gibney

I do not understand this ruling. The judge said on the 9th that the residency requirements for petition circulators was likely unconstitutional and likely violated the candidates' free speech rights. How does the constitutionality of an issue expire or become void just because VA needed to print its absentee ballots. Either it's unconstitutional or it's not. What gives? If the candidates had not even bothered to gather signatures, the court would have said they didn't have standing because they made no attempt to get on the ballot and therefore suffered no injury.

I’ve read on one of the, i believe , Perry threads that there WAS a Supreme Court case that ruled you do *not* have to live in the state you are gathering signatures in.

I cannot remember the case name.

So hopefully appeals will rule it uncostitutional as did the SCOTUS.

Maybe Altura, Shield or CW would remember the court case name ????

Someone from Virginia, please correct me if I am wrong.

As I understand the judicial ruling,the State of Virginia has very stringent requirements for qualifying to be on the ballot.One might even correctly call them onerous or unfair.
But in order to challenge the requirements successfully, the complaint should have been made at the beginning or middle of the qualification process, not at the end.
The challenge/suit was not made in a timely manner.
Two candidates managed to meet the requirements, and are on the ballot. Many other candidates did not meet or exceed the minimum requirements, and also did not challenge the rules well prior to qualification deadlines. Probably one of the reasons Virginia crafted the ballot requirements in the first place was that the State of Virginia wanted the citizens of Virginia votes to weigh heavily on the nation as an early primary State.The requirements are not “new”. That the validation process regarding signatories to petitions was tightened even further is beside the point.

As a Florida resident, I applauded the decision of the State of Florida, to hold our primary “early”, no matter what sanctions the “National Republican Convention” threatened us with.
In part, because we have a closed party primary, and also because we require all voters to show ID, in order to vote.

Those who claim to be Republicans in Virginia have three choices now.
Romney, Paul, or write “intentionally left blank” on your ballot form.