Virginia Libertarian Party Completes Petition Drive for Gubernatorial Election

Virginia holds elections for Governor and legislature on November 7, 2017. Statewide candidates running in the general election need 10,000 signatures. It appears the only statewide petitions being submitted for any statewide race this year are for the Libertarian nominee for Governor, Cliff Hyra. He has already collected approximately 16,000 signatures. Virginia allows petitioning groups to submit the petitions on a flow basis, so almost all of these signatures have already been submitted and checked. The petition deadline is Tuesday, June 13, at 7 p.m.

Assuming Hyra is on the ballot, this will be the first time any party, other than the Republican and Democratic Parties, has been on the ballot for two Virginia gubernatorial elections in a row, since the period 1941-1953 when the Socialist Party was always on. Before 1970 the statewide non-presidential petition in Virginia was only 250 signatures.

The Libertarians will probably also have seven or so legislative nominees on the ballot. The Green Party will probably have four legislative candidates on the ballot.

Virginia is one of only two states that defines a qualified party as one that got 10% of the vote in a previous election; the other such state is New Jersey. The median vote test of the 50 states is 2%.


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