On October 24, independent legislative candidate Michael Osborne filed a lawsuit against the Virginia Republican Party, arguing that the Virginia Constitution requires that if independent candidate petitions must be checked, then petitions to place someone on a party primary ballot must also be checked. On November 7, the Bristol County Circuit Court said the case had been filed too close to the November 8 legislative election to expect injunctive relief. But the case will continue, to determine if the existing policy is unconstitutional.

Virginia requires 125 signatures to put a candidate on the ballot for State House, whether the candidate is running in a partisan primary or is petitioning as a minor party or independent candidate directly to the November ballot. But in practice, the petitions for independents and minor parties are checked to see if there enough valid signatures, whereas the petitions for the primary are not checked. If a primary petition appears on its face to have as many signatures as are required, it is assumed to be valid. The case is Osborne v Boyles, cl 11-520-00. See this story.

If this case gets a decision in the next few months, it could impact Virginia’s presidential primary, which will be held on March 6. Virginia requires more signatures for a mainstream presidential candidate to get on a presidential primary ballot than any other state, 10,000. In the past, even candidates with considerable support have had trouble completing the Virginia petition requirement. If the signatures must be checked for validity, they will have even more trouble, because they will probably need to collect approximately 16,000 to obtain enough valid signatures. The Virginia legislature considered a bill this year to reduce the presidential primary petition, but the bill did not pass. No other state requires more than 5,000 signatures for presidential primary ballot access, for candidates who are discussed in the news media.

The plaintiff, Michael Osborne, running in the Fifth State House district, received 30.4% of the vote in his race against his lone opponent, Republican nominee Israel O’Quinn.