The Democratic Party of
Virginia and the Republican Party of Virginia are the only recognized
political parties; for other individuals wishing to appear on
Virginia's
general election ballot as a candidate for President, the state
requires
signatures of not less than 10,000 qualified voters, including at least
400 qualified voters from each of Virginia's eleven congressional
districts. These must be filed with the State Board of Elections
no later than noon on August 20, 2004. Further, according to a
rule posted on the Board of Elections web site
"petition pages must be filed by congressional district order and,
within each congressional district, in locality order (counties
followed by cities)."
Jean Jensen, Secretary of the Virginia State Board of
Elections, summarized the petition submissions in a Sept. 8, 2004
e-mail, reprinted verbatim below:
The deadline for third party candidates to submit all
required documents, including petitions bearing the signatures of
10,000
registered Virginia voters, was noon on August 20, 2004. All
campaigns were presented with a document in use by this office since
1999 entitled
Federal Law, Deadlines and Ballot Access Requirements, General Election
for
President, Tuesday, November 2, 2004. The document included
the deadline for submission, and the requirements that all petitions
must be
notarized and organized in Congressional District order.
The Libertarian Party submitted all documents including
petitions bearing 11,475 signatures on June 30 and on July 20 they
submitted an
additional 2,228 signatures for a total of 13,703 signatures. All were
sorted
by Congressional District order at the time of filing.
The Constitution Party submitted all documents and petitions
sorted by Congressional District order at 10:10am on August
20. They submitted 21,963 signatures.
On August 20, representatives of the Nader Campaign arrived
in our office at 11:35am, and six or seven young people
immediately spread out on the floor of our office and began to sort
petitions
into folders. Additional four or five Nader workers entered the office
and
joined the workers on the floor. At 12:00 we blocked the
door to prevent entry by additional Nader campaign workers who
attempted to
enter with additional petition pages. At 12:05 I directed
the staff to escort everyone on the floor to another room for safety
reasons as
it would have been impossible to exit the office if we had a fire or
other
emergency.
At 12:15, I went to the
room to observe and saw that the group was still sorting. I questioned
my
authority to allow the Nader workers to continue to sort after 12 noon.
I called
the office of the Attorney General for advice. Jim Hopper, Senior
Assistant
Attorney General asked me if the other campaigns filed before noon and
if
their petitions were in Congressional District order. I replied yes. He
stated
that all parties must be treated equally, the same standards applied to
all. He
advised me to decline to accept the petitions. I notified the Nader
Campaign of
this decision.
On Monday morning, August 23, I received a hand delivered
letter from Mr. Hopper stating that the Ballot Access document
requiring the
sorting of petitions by Congressional District ordered had never been
voted on
by the three members of the State Board of Elections (SBE) and was,
therefore unenforceable.
I was advised to accept the petitions.
I followed the advice of the Attorney General’s office
on Friday, August 20 and again on Monday, August 23.
The staff of the State Board of Elections accepted the Nader
petitions.
The petitions for the Constitution Party, Libertarian Party
and Nader Campaign were sent to the offices of the General Registrars
around
the state. The Registrars checked every signature against the Virginia
Voter
Registration list. They verified the signatures of 7,342 registered
Virginia voters.
The Director of the Elections Services division of the SBE,
reported to the Board on Tuesday, September 7, 2004 that the candidates
for
both the Constitution Party and for the Libertarian party qualified to
appear
on the November ballot as the met all qualification requirements
including the
signatures of 10,000 registered voters. Mr. Nader did not qualify for
the
ballot as he obtained the signatures of only 7,342 registered voters,
and not
the 10,000 required by law.
Jean Jensen
Secretary
State Board of Elections