Virginia holds elections this November for state office, including Governor. The petition deadline for independent candidates, and the nominees of unqualified parties, is June 11. On the deadline, Rob Sarvis, Libertarian nominee, submitted almost 18,000 signatures to meet a requirement of 10,000 valid signatures.

The only other announced candidate who is running outside the two major parties, independent Tareq Salahi, failed to submit a petition. See this Washington Post article about his failure to submit a petition. Thanks to Peter Gemma for the link.

Assuming Sarvis gets on the ballot, he will be only the fourth minor party nominee to get on the Virginia ballot in the last 40 years. The others were Libertarian Bill Redpath in 2001, Reform Party nominee Sue Harris DeBauche in 1997, and U.S. Labor Party nominee Alan Ogden in 1977. DeBauche did not need to petition, because the Reform Party was ballot-qualified in 1997, because it had polled over 10% for U.S. Senate in 1994.