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Ranjit Singh's avatar

I have long wished for investigative journalism in our area. Thank you!

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Paul Everitt's avatar

As a related note, a Democrat was removed from the ballot for failing to have ".gov" on her filing email address: https://richmond.com/news/state-regional/government-politics/democratic-chair-asks-elections-board-to-let-candidate-on-ballot-after-email-error/article_85630180-3bb0-11ee-84db-8707c217b173.html

I humbly posit that these Spotsy compliance issues are...more severe. But as Mark Taylor's hiring qualification show, compliance is situational.

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Shaun Kenney's avatar

I don't know if that is going to be enough to overcome voter intent on petitions. For instance, in a 2007 case in Hampton Roads, a state senator paid staffers to collect signatures -- and they went outside of the district to do so. The judge sided with the sitting state senator, stating that to DQ the candidate would disenfranchise the voters who did live inside the district.

All the more reason, ladies and gentlemen, to collect 200 signatures and not the requisite 125!!!

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Paul Everitt's avatar

Well-said Shaun and I concur, the system should err on the side of qualifying. But wow...outside the district seems outside the intent of signature collection. Maybe if it was "just barely" and clearly an oversight (e.g. used the previous district by accident.)

While I'm here...I just loved your previous article. Smuggled in a Latin expression, well played. I'm a lapsed Republican, somewhere on the Lincoln/Eisenhower/Kemp spectrum. Really, I'm a George Will Republican. Your writing reminds me of what I love about his. Thanks for joining this effort.

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Shaun Kenney's avatar

Jack Kemp is who got me involved in politics!! Glad to know that there are at least a few of us guarding and defending our own Thermopylae...

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Paul Everitt's avatar

"300" isn't a movie, it's a count of reasonable Republicans left in Virginia, amirite? 😈

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Shaun Kenney's avatar

More of us than you realize.

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