I don't have a dog in this fight, but...

[Ibby]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

It turns out that, in previous elections, the VA Republican Party has not checked the validity of signatures. If a candidate turned in 10,000 signatures it was assumed they were all valid, registered voters, and not forgeries at all.

In other words, theoretically, a team with a list and a bunch of Bics could assemble the 10,000 signatures for Alan Keyes in one pizza night.

If you check the information in ballot access petitions, you will generally be able to nullify a good fifth of them just for being incorrect. Ditto marks are not valid. Illegible signatures are not valid.

If you go further, you can remove another set where people have written their city instead of their polling location, or where they've gotten some aspect of the thing wrong. Go further and you can eliminate people not on the registered voters list, and obvious forgeries and such.

Eventually, if you have a lot of money and work hard at it, you can disallow half of the signatures for various reasons.

The policy for this election was that if you turned in over 15,000 signatures, they would not check them. And that is what Mitt Romney did.

Bonus irony: Rick Perry vetoed legislation to ease Texas's ballot access laws.

Maddow made a REALLY important point on the show tonight. The governor of VA wants to be VP - but Gingrich CAN NOT constitutionally select a virginian. The Lt. Gov. is also Romney's head campaign guy in VA. But more than that - ONLY Romney and Paul are going to be on the ballot, apparently.

[Lamplighter]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

<snip>

Eventually, if you have a lot of money and work hard at it, you can disallow half of the signatures for various reasons.

The policy for this election was that if you turned in over 15,000 signatures, they would not check them. And that is what Mitt Romney did.

Bonus irony: Rick Perry vetoed legislation to ease Texas's ballot access laws.

And, of course, you have to eliminate all the felons.

[classicman]

but Gingrich CAN NOT constitutionally select a virginian.

Huh?

[Ibby]

Originally Posted by classicman

Huh?

Article 2 section 1.

"The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not lie an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves." As in, the President and VP have to be residents of different states.

Gingrich resides in Virginia. Oops.


EDIT: sorry, my bad. The 12th amendment has precedence here. Which reads:

"The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves..."

so, same deal.

[classicman]

I understand that. What does that have to do with your quote of UT's post?

[Ibby]

The process within the VA GOP seems to be fractured and fraught with infighting to at least some degree - I'm not alleging legal or moral wrongdoing, but there is at least a whiff of something fishy about the circumstances, beyond "well they should have had more signatures"

[Griff]

I just like that the GOP is doing to their fellows what the two major parties have consistently done to third party candidates over the years without a peep from the press. /schadenfreude

[BigV]

Originally Posted by Ibram

Article 2 section 1.

"The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not lie an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves." As in, the President and VP have to be residents of different states.

Gingrich resides in Virginia. Oops.


EDIT: sorry, my bad. The 12th amendment has precedence here. Which reads:

"The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves..."

so, same deal.

Ibram--that is so much blah blah blah, etc. I say this with respect to you, personally, but with eyerolling scorn for the actual players here. Do you really think Dick Cheney was from fucking Wyoming?

[Undertoad]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

It turns out that, in previous elections, the VA Republican Party has not checked the validity of signatures. If a candidate turned in 10,000 signatures it was assumed they were all valid, registered voters, and not forgeries at all.

In other words, theoretically, a team with a list and a bunch of Bics could assemble the 10,000 signatures for Alan Keyes in one pizza night.

And that's how the Gingrich team completed their signature drive.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com...rginia-ballot/

Last week his campaign acknowledged they used paid volunteers to scramble to get the required 10,000 signatures but fell short after the former House speaker and Virginia resident boasted his campaign was submitting as many as 12,000-14,000 signatures.

On a campaign stop at an Algona chocolate store, the former House speaker said the "mistake" occurred because one of their workers committed fraud.

"We hired somebody who turned in false signatures. We turned in 11,100 – we needed 10,000 – 1,500 of them were by one guy who frankly committed fraud."

But don't blame Gingrich 100%; it's nearly impossible that it wouldn't happen, due to the prevalence of paid petitioners; and remember the Romney and Paul ballots are not being checked for this sort of thing, since they turned in 15,000.

[BigV]

Is someone who frankly commits fraud honest or dishonest?

[Griff]

lol

[Lamplighter]

Sorry, I can't believe I missed this until today...

Opposing Views
12/15/11

Former GOP Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell announced her endorsement of Mitt Romney
last night and appeared on CNN’s 'American Morning' to discuss his qualifications (video below).

When host Carol Costello noted how Romney has actually “changed his mind”
quite a bit on important issues, O’Donnell replied: “That’s one of the things I like about him,
because he’s been consistent since he changed his mind.”

[classicman]

Bwahahahahahahaa!! !!! !!!!

I would pay her NOT to endorse me.
OTOH, CNN lost a few more credibility points having her on and thinking anyone is interested in her opinion.

[classicman]

Here is the whole segment. Whew, I just lost a few more brain cells watching that.

[Griff]

Santorum has wheedled his way up to a near dead heat. Hint for GOP voter, if your candidate is too extreme for PA he is unelectable.