BREAKING: Perry Pursues Legal Challenge For Virginia GOP Ballot
By Shaun Kenney | Tuesday, December 27th, 2011 | Politics, VirginiaRick Perry crosses the Rubicon:
Texas Gov. Rick Perry today filed suit in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia challenging the constitutional validity of the Virginia statute which regulates access to the ballot by presidential candidates and limits the rights of voters to vote for the candidate of their choice. To review the filing, please visit http://www.rickperry.org/content/uploads/2011/12/Perry-VA-Ballot-Access.pdf.
Virginia’s ballot access requirements are among the most onerous in the nation and severely restrict who may obtain petition signatures.
“Gov. Perry greatly respects the citizens and history of the Commonwealth of Virginia and believes Virginia Republicans should have greater access to vote for one of the several candidates for President of the United States,” said Perry campaign communications director Ray Sullivan.
“Virginia ballot access rules are among the most onerous and are particularly problematic in a multi-candidate election. We believe that the Virginia provisions unconstitutionally restrict the rights of candidates and voters by severely restricting access to the ballot, and we hope to have those provisions overturned or modified to provide greater ballot access to Virginia voters and the candidates seeking to earn their support.”
Of course, Virginia’s rules have been in place for over 50 years… so Perry will be hard pressed to demonstrate that his disqualification was on form rather than on substance. Still, this does make things rather interesting heading down the road (not to mention Perry’s response was a much more disciplined response than Gingrich’s three-day temper tantrum).
UPDATE: Briefly… anyone want to check out para. 18? Only 6,000 qualified signatures? Sounds a lot less than 10,000…
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Shaun Kenney is the Chairman of the Fluvanna County Board of Supervisors, former Communications Director for the Republican Party of Virginia, and an active blogger since 2002. Shaun lives in Thomas Jefferson's backyard with his wife, six children, and a modest attempt at a farm in Kents Store, Virginia.
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28 Responses to "BREAKING: Perry Pursues Legal Challenge For Virginia GOP Ballot"
This will be very interesting to watch, particularly if other campaigns or groups join the suit on his side.
And as the AG, who said the law needs to be made less stringent, will have to defend it in court, it all becomes even more intriguing.
True… though that’s what they have assistant AGs for.
Perry ran off and filed suit before considering all of his litigation options. A constitutional challenge is unlikely to result in a preliminary injunction due to the status of caselaw within the Fourth Circuit.
A better option is to go through state court.
Details here: http://northernvirginialawyer.blogspot.com/2011/12/provoking-virginia-election-law-legal.html
Perry for President vs The people of Virginia..
Yeah that ought to go over well.
Paul’s points are great, and I honestly was thinking the same thing when I was going over the statutes. It would be easier if Title 24.2 was more clear – at least in providing definitions or including presidential primaries in the list of offices.
I looked over Perry’s filing and it’s a typical 1983 claim. He has some case law where state requirements that petition circulators be registered voters, but the prime case they cite – Buckley v. American Constitutional Law, 525 U.S. 182 (1999) – deals with petition circulators who were circulating petitions for a ballot initiative. That’s a lot different from someone circulating for a presidential candidate. A ballot initiative circulator is going to have to convince folks to sign because the signature is a tacit approval of the focus of the petition. A presidential primary circulator is simply trying to get someone’s name on the ballot. I signed for Ron Paul, Herman Cain and Mitt Romney. It’s different and that means the 1st amendment implications are different.
The other cases they had a string cite with a bunch of citations. I only checked the first one but it’s another initiative one. I think the Nader ones aren’t, but those are persuasive authority as they’re not in the 4th Circuit or a Virginia Court.
I think it’s a stretch that they get a preliminary injunction on this, but it will be interesting to see if this goes anywhere long term.
[...] Via Bearing Drift, it has been learned that Rick Perry has launched his own legal challenge. Actually, it’s [...]
[...] a real man reacts, as opposed to throwing a “three day temper tantrum”, which is how Norm Leahy described Gingrich’s response to not making the primary [...]
Thank you Gov. Rick Perry. Though I was not going to vote for you, you did say on day one you would look at your legal options and this you have done. Nobody until now took you seriously. You are a man of your word. And now you can feel the full brunt, hatred, fury and flurry of vitriol soon to come your way from the editors of the Bearing Drift “conservative voice” aka Republican Party at your peril. Those of us who believe in the right to vote will be cheering you on.
Craig, come on. RPV doesn’t run Bearing Drift. If they did, they’d be buying more ads.
And I have no reason to attack Perry. He doesn’t live in Virginia, he didn’t throw a temper tantrum or equate his failure to a sneak attack that killed hundreds of Americans, and he’s filing a lawsuit to challenge a law he thinks is unconstitutional. That I can respect.
Rick Perry is acting presidential. Newt was just being Newt. There’s a big difference.
If Perry was smart, he would have filed in early December once it became clear he wasn’t going to get the sigs. Then the PI could have been to extend the deadline or something similar.
Craig,
B/D is not an arm of the RPVA. If they are, they have done a poor job of removing dissenting comments and posts.
Brian, thanks for the positive comments.
Look Perry has filed a lawsuit based on n open constitutional question for which there is a circuit split. In short – this a recipe for hesitation when what he needs it decisive early victory form a preliminary injunction hearing.
The route to the highest probability of obtaining that victory is in the state level courts. If Newt gloms on to the Perry suit, expect a lot of hot air, and a loss at the PI hearing. If Newt goes the state route, it increases the chances dramatically that one of these matters will be successful and these folks can get on the ballot.
BTW Perry not being so sure he submitted 10,000 signatures, probably means he’ll get thrown out of court on standing grounds.
Brian, since you are a lawyer and I am not, in your opinion, can Perry’s desired relief – being put on the ballot – be granted, since it’s speculative that he would have gotten 10K valid signatures even if the law about circulators is invalid?
Further, it seems as though if Perry is put on the ballot, any declared candidate would have to be put on the ballot, because the unconstitutional provision affected all the disqualified candidates, right?
Quite frankly, Paul, you make a great point. Kilby is getting under my skin because he has diarrhea of the keyboard. For someone who was a former state legislator from Missouri, he is extremely vitriolic, personal, and hyperbolic with his commentary. In some respects, I should pull him because he is completely disrespectful and contributes very little to the conversation.
Stuff like this makes it clear why not becoming a lawyer was a good decision for me. I just don’t see how anyone’s voting rights were restricted. All the candidates had the opportunity to get on the ballot and supposedly lesser men made it on the ballot in the past. The only ones who restricted access to the ballots were the candidates who failed to get on the ballot. I wasn’t planning on voting for Romney or Paul, but I am not voting for someone who gets on the ballot through the courts in order to compensate for their own leadership and managerial failings.
Para. 20: “Virginia’s requirement for petition circulators to be eligible or registered qualified voters in the state imposes a severe burden on Plaintiffs’ [sic] freedoms of speech and association because it substantially limits the number of eligible petition circulators.”
Seriously, Rick? There were 5,116,942 registered voters in Virginia as of November 5, 2011. How many circulators did you need to get 10,000 valid signatures? 1 billion?
At this point I would just like the option to vote “present”.
Courts have been ruling in favor of the candidates. Not so much for initiatives. Perry has a case and everyone gets on the ballot.
Samuel, I just don’t see how Perry gets on the ballot this way. At best, he could have the statute invalidated, but that’s going to take a lot longer than the few weeks he has before the ballots have to be printed.
I don’t know whether the court would be willing to grant an injunction here, either to have him placed on the ballot pending resolution of the case or to enjoin the primary altogether. While it seems to me there’s irreparable harm if the injunction isn’t granted and there’s no adequate legal remedy, I don’t know if it’s clear that he’ll prevail on the merits. It’s tough to say – I think I can distinguish the case law he cited, but as Paul pointed out, there’s a circuit split and I don’t know how willing the ED or 4th Circuit is going to be to push this.
In any event, he’s running out of time. I think Paul’s strategy of going through state court makes the most sense.
has anyone asked Rick Perry why he vetoed HB 1274 back in 2003 that would have prevented those collecting signatures from having to give a 93 word explanation to each voter.
Uh, I think the answer is obvious. It’s fragrantly stupid and impossible to do? That would have made Texas even worse than Virginia. Kudos, Guv.
I’m starting to like Rick Perry more by the minute.
Thanks, Brian. I agree that the likelihood of him succeeding on the merits is undefined, at best, and it seems like putting him on the ballot irreparably injures Romney and Paul. It seems like the only thing that can prevent any harm to anyone is an injunction to postpone the election. Perhaps it could coincide with the Senate primary in June. Of course, such an injunction could only be granted if Perry had a substantial likelihood of winning on the merits, which is questionable.
@Craig Kilby: Perry vetoed the repeal of the law requiring the 93-word statement. In other words, he supported the required statement. Care to restate yourself?
How Does Attorney General Kilgore not have enough volunteer contacts to get Governor Perry on the ballot? Does he not still know 50 volunteer workers in the state of Virginia?
So Texas Governor Rick Perry, the avowed champion of “States Rights,” who has suggested that Texas has the Constitutional right to secede from the United States if the Federal government interferes in its internal affairs, now goes into Federal court and sues to have the Federal government interfere in another State’s election laws. Hypocrite.
“First of all, I am neutral in the Primary. As the Party’s leader I think that it’s important I ensure a level playing field, not take a side. Plus, any one of our nominees will be better than the current occupant of the White House. Our Country is spiraling downward, economically and socially, and we need to be united to win in November, 2012.
Second, the Republican Party of Virginia merely certifies petition signatures. We don’t set ballot access laws. Those laws are set by the General Assembly, not by the RPV.
The candidates for President all knew the laws set by the Commonwealth of Virginia that they needed to abide by to get on the ballot. We can’t change the rules mid-game to right what may or may not be a wrong. The law is the law.
Lastly, this is a personal opinion. Virginia is the cradle of Democracy. The ballot access laws should be modified and streamlined to allow greater participation. We can’t do anything about 2012 at this point. But I do intend to appeal to our General Assembly and elected leaders to bring Virginia’s ballot access more in line with other states — simpler and streamlined with greater access. I think it’s important that the people in Virginia get to vote for the candidate of their choice, not be restricted.
One more thing — Rick Perry sued Virginia, RPV and me today, so I probably going to be told by our lawyers I can’t say anything more about this. It’s not usual that I’m sued by someone I like, but politics is strange, huh? :}”
- Pat Mullins
[...] more coverage of the on-going dispute over access to the Virginia primary ballot, we suggest that you visit [...]
Since I post here using my name ‘Sara’ I want to note that the post ^ up there was not made by me.
Tricky tricksters, clever.
pprados wrote “B/D is not an arm of the RPVA. If they are, they have done a poor job of removing dissenting comments and posts.”
Is this tacit acknowledgements that RPV does not allow dissenting voices?
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