Trump files 16000 signatures to be on the 2016 ballot.
What? Isn’t this old news? Didn’t this happen 10 days ago?
The short answer is, no it didn’t.
In order to qualify to be on the Presidential Primary Ballot in 2016 candidates must file at least 5000 valid signatures from throughout the Commonwealth and 200 valid signatures per Congressional District pursuant to Va. Code § 24.2-545.
These signatures must be submitted in a sealed particularized form to the State Board of Elections. The SBE then sends them to the state party for signature verification.
The deadline to file with the SBE is December 10, 2015.
Only one candidate has filed, Donald Trump. He filed his signatures with the SBE at 1:30 this afternoon November 12, 2015. I’m not sure where they have been the past 10 days, but at least they figured it out.
To the other campaigns:
1. If you don’t intend to compete in Virginia no one should be taking your campaign seriously. You need your proportion of Virginia delegates if you are planning to carry the nomination at the convention.
2. Our signature requirement was halved after the 2012 system that yielded only two Republican candidates on the ballot. Lyndon Larouche could do it REPEATEDLY under the older requirements. Now that the requirements have been halved only the most disorganized will fail to obtain ballot placement. Those campaigns could not beat Hillary Clinton anyway.
3. If you wait until the last moment: Please file your signatures with the SBE! Trump took ten days to figure it out and he still has 29 to spare. Don’t show up at the SBE on December 11 complaining that you brought your boxes to the wrong place.*
That is all.
*Update: I left my snotty comments in so as not to whitewash. Trump delivered his signatures to RPV for a prearranged precheck review process. RPV is doing a pre-check review process. Per the following:
RPV reviewed the signatures on the petitions submitted and the Trump Campaign passed the pre-check process indicating there are sufficient signatures to meet the 5,000 statewide and 200 per Congressional District requirements of Virginia law.
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“The pathway to the White House runs through Virginia,” said RPV Chairman John Whitbeck. “With our March 1, 2016 primary deadline less than a month away, we are excited that Donald Trump has become the first candidate to have the necessary signatures to qualify for the ballot. We appreciate the campaign’s efforts to get the signatures in quickly and it demonstrates how committed they are to making the ballot here and competing with their strong ground game in Virginia.We anticipate that the vast majority, if not all, the candidates will appear on the ballot. Virginia voters will definitely have a say on who the Republican nominee will be.”
Mr. Trump stated, “I am proud to be the first Republican candidate to complete this important step in qualifying for the ballot well ahead of the deadline. I greatly appreciate the tremendous support we have received from the people in Virginia, where we have a great staff, passionate supporters and volunteers who are ready to Make America Great Again.”
This is completely contrary to previous protocol and could cause problems with the verification process. Signatures are to be delivered by the campaigns to the SBE pursuant to Va. Code § 24.2-545(B) in sealed containers. If those containers are handled outside of the campaigns in a manner outside the Virginia Code, albeit by a trusted party, they will have to be re-reviewed by the campaigns before submission to the SBE in sealed containers only to be forwarded back to RPV which will then have to conduct a new official review. As this was done here by the Trump campaign well in advance, this is a reasonable additional step.
