Perry falls far short of making Virginia primary ballot

Texas Governor Rick Perry will not appear on the Virginia Republican primary ballot on March 6th. The Republican Party of Virginia, which is still in the process of counting the signatures the candidates submitted to gain access to the ballot, said tonight that the Perry campaign submitted fewer than the 10,000 signatures necessary according to the Code of Virginia.

Sources inside the room tell NBC12 that Perry did not even come close.

A GOP activist who witnessed the count said that it became very clear that the Perry campaign, which reported to the Virginia Board of elections that it had gathered 11,911 signatures, did not come anywhere near that number. This source said Perry’s campaign may have submitted somewhere between 4-6 thousand qualified signatures.

Perry’s State Chair, former Attorney General Jerry Kilgore confirmed that his candidate did not make the ballot.

Not making the ballot will be a disappointment to the Perry campaign, which enjoyed pretty solid ties to Virginia. The Texas Governor is close friends with Governor Bob McDonnell and was enthusiastically welcomed to the Commonwealth shortly after he announced his intentions to run for president. He spoke to a capacity crowd at the Richmond Convention Center at a fundraiser for the State Party.

At that time Perry was the frontrunner, now he is fighting for survival by hoping for a 3rd or 4th place finish in the upcoming Iowa caucuses.

Perry now joins, Michelle Bachmann, Rick Santorum and Jon Huntsman as candidates who failed to make the Virginia primary ballot.  So far only Mitt Romney and Ron Paul have been certified. The party is still counting Newt Gingrich‘s signatures.

 *Note photo courtesy of DJ Eckert