Indiana requires 4,500 signatures to get on a presidential primary ballot, and 500 in each U.S. House district. According to this story, Rick Santorum is fighting a ruling that he failed to submit 500 valid signatures in the 7th district.
Indiana requires 4,500 signatures to get on a presidential primary ballot, and 500 in each U.S. House district. According to this story, Rick Santorum is fighting a ruling that he failed to submit 500 valid signatures in the 7th district.
As reported by an Indiana political blog on January 24, Newt had zero verified signatures and Santorum possessed only 250+/-. Nine congressional districts requiring 500 VERIFIED signatures in each. Signatures were due to county clerks by NOON on Janurary 31 for verification. Jan. 24-Jan.31 Newt and Santorum teams must have been very busy. Ron Paul grassroots effort turned in over 700 signatures in one northwestern county and of those only 480 were verified. In that same (largest county of the district), AFTER the filing deadline, it was reported by the elections office that Newt had only 50 verified signatures while Santorum had nearly the same number as Paul. It is also interesting to note that Mitt Romney and Barack Obama turned in 4,500 +/-signatures within the first days allowed to do so… (on or around Jan. 11th) according to various Indiana political blogs.
It is my opinion that the validity of all candidates’ signatures be challenged, considering the revelation in Oct. 2011 that both Clinton and Obama’s 2008 petitions contained signatures that are allegedly faked and fraudulent. (source South Bend Tribune, Howey Politics and Fox) It is time for clerks and election boards to take their jobs seriously.