Santorum, Bachmann, Huntsman All Fail to Qualify for Virginia’s Super Tuesday Primary Ballot

Failure.

POLITICO: Michele Bachmann, Jon Huntsman and Rick Santorum all failed to meet the requirements for the Virginia ballot, according to the state’s Board of Elections.

Of the 2012 GOP hopefuls, just Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul and Rick Perry submitted the required number of signatures today.

The state’s primary, which is slated for Super Tuesday on March 6, has some of the most stringent ballot access requirements in the country: 10,000 signatures from registered Virginia voters, including 400 from each of the state’s 11 congressional districts. And the elections board recommends getting at least 1.5 times the number of required signatures — 15,000 for presidential candidates — in case any of them are found to be invalid.

Mitt Romney, who filed Tuesday, was the only candidate to get 1.5 times the required number of signatures: he submitted a total of 16,026 signatures, according to Chris Piper of the Virginia State Board of Elections.

Paul filed today with 14,361 signatures, Perry had 11,911 and Gingrich had 11,050. . . . Read More

For these candidates, it raises the obvious question: Even if they do well in Iowa (or New Hampshire in Huntsman’s case), where do they go from there? They have put such singular focus on one state that they really are not viable elsewhere, or so it seems.

Jim Geraghty has more, particularly on the Santorum Campaign.

Hot Air: Fiasco: Bachmann, Huntsman, Santorum fail to make Virginia ballot