On December 24, Newt Gingrich criticized Virginia’s ballot access law for presidential primary candidates. See this story. The Gingrich campaign initially seemed to believe that Gingrich could launch a write-in campaign, but Virginia election law bans write-ins in primaries, although the Virginia Constitution protects write-ins in general elections.

Gingrich could plausibly sue Virginia over its requirement that circulators cannot work in Virginia unless they live in Virginia. Lawsuits against residency requirements for circulators have won in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Some of these victories were against bans on out-of-state circulators, and some of them were against bans on out-of-district circulators.

Also on December 24, Professor Rick Hasen, an election law expert, commented that when a state ballot access law bars a majority of the leading contenders from the ballot, something is wrong with the law. The Republican Party now generally recognizes seven contenders for its nomination, and in Virginia, only two of them qualified.

This Daily Kos article suggests that if Indiana State Courts rule that November 2010 votes for Charlie White are deemed not to have been cast (on the theory that the Republican nominee for Secretary of State, Charlie White, wasn’t eligible to be on the ballot), then the Republican Party would lose qualified status and would need to submit petitions for all its nominees in 2012 and 2014.

UPDATE: however, the Daily Kos author seems unaware that in 2011, the Indiana legislature passed HB 1242, which says that when a state recount commission makes a final determination that a candidate for Secretary of State is not eligible, that determination does not affect the validity of the votes cast. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.

On December 23, the Republican Party of Virginia determined that Rick Perry’s petition to be on that state’s presidential primary ballot does not have enough valid signatures. See this story.

Governor Perry is one of only two Governors, in the last 60 years, who vetoed a bill to improve ballot access. On May 20, 2003, he had vetoed HB 1274, which deleted a Texas requirement that petition circulators must read a 93-word statement to every voter they approach. The bill had passed both houses of the legislature unanimously. The statement, which is still in the Texas law, thanks to Perry’s veto, said, “I know that the purpose of this petition is to entitle the (whichever) Party to have its nominees placed on the ballot in the general election for state and county officers. I have not voted in a primary election or participated in a convention of another party during this voting year, and I understand that I become ineligible to do so by signing this petition. I understand that signing more than one petition to entitle a party to have its nominees placed on the general election ballot in the same election is prohibited.”

Forcing a circulator to read this lengthy statement slows down the progress of any circulator, and shows that, at least in 2003, Governor Perry had no interest in fair ballot access. But, maybe the recent Virginia experience will affect his attitude about ballot access barriers. Thanks to Cody Quirk for the news.