Roanoke College Polls has released a poll of the Virginia Republican presidential primary. Virginia’s primary ballot only lists Ron Paul and Mitt Romney, and write-ins aren’t allowed. The poll is unusual because it not only asked about the two candidates who are actually on the ballot, it also asked Republicans this hypothetical question: if Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, and Rick Santorum were on the ballot, who would you vote for?

The results for the actual primary are: Mitt Romney 56%, Ron Paul 21%, the remainder undecided or won’t vote.

The results if all four were on the ballot: Mitt Romney 31%, Rick Santorum 27%, Newt Gingrich 13%, Ron Paul 12%. Thus, 40% of the voters would like to cast a vote that in the actual election is not permitted.

Astoundingly, no Virginia legislator has introduced any bill to ease the statewide petition requirements. The only bill that might have helped give voters a free choice, had it been enacted in time, is HB 1132, to permit write-ins in primaries. The House passed that bill, but the Senate postponed consideration until 2013.

It is true that this year, the Virginia legislature passed a bill to abolish the in-district residency requirement for circulators, but that bill makes no difference for statewide petitions. It only helps candidates for district office, such as U.S. House and state legislature. Although statewide petitions do have a distribution requirement (400 signatures from each U.S. House district), the in-district residency requirement for circulators, for the last ten years or so, has not applied to statewide petition circulators.