The Republican Party of Virginia has announced that it will begin this week the process of validating petitions for presidential candidates seeking to be on the ballot in Virginia’s primary.
Beginning Dec. 23, volunteers will verify whether each candidate that has turned in their petitions have the proper signatures from all the congressional districts in order to appear on the March 6, 2012 primary ballot.
Candidates need to have at least 10,000 signatures statewide and 400 per congressional district.
Virginia’s convention delegates at the Republican National Convention will be allocated based on a number of conditions.
First, if a candidate wins 50 percent of the vote, they receive all the at-large delegates. If no candidate achieves 50 percent, but a candidate has received greater than 15 percent of the vote, delegates are assigned proportionally.
Additionally, each congressional district has three delegates to the convention. The candidate that wins that district, even if a plurality, will receive all three delegates.
Virginia is part of “Super Tuesday”, where 10 states are holding primaries, including Ohio. Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida, Michigan and Arizona will all have concluded their nomination votes prior to Super Tuesday.
RPV hopes to have all the petitions validated on Dec. 23.