Judge Rules Against Perry's Challenge of Virginia Election Law

As most of you know, Rick Perry was challenging the Virginia law that says only registered voters in Virginia (or people who are eligible to register) can circulate petitions in favor of political candidates. Perry claims that it was this restriction that prevented him from qualifying for the GOP presidential primary on March 6. After a hearing in Richmond, however, Perry got a big blow when US district judge John Gibney ruled against his challenge and said that Perry waited too long to file their suit.

"They knew the rules in Virginia many months ago; the limitations on circulators affected them as soon as they began to circulate petitions," he said in a 22 page written ruling released earlier today. "The plaintiffs could have challenged the Virginia law at that time. Instead, they waited until after the time to gather petitions had ended and they had lost the political battle to be on the ballot; then, on the eve of the printing of absentee ballots, they decided to challenge Virginia's laws. In essence, they played the game, lost, and then complained that the rules were unfair."

What this means is that Virginia can begin preparing the ballots that don't include Perry's name (only Romney and Ron Paul actually qualified). Although it's looking like Romney will probably wrap up the nomination by the end of this month, it'll be interesting to see what happens if one of the more conservative alternatives in able to gain some momentum. The delegates that are at stake, after all, would have probably been crucial to anyone who's trying to catch up to the early lead that Romney has gained.