We vote every year in Virginia, and 2025 will see the highest offices in Richmond and every seat in the House of Delegates elected. But first candidates must get on the primary ballot the race is on to meet eligibility deadlines.
It’s not easy to get on the primary ballot in Virginia if you want to be Governor, Lt. Governor or the state’s next Attorney General. You must collect 10,000 signatures with at least 400 from each of the state’s eleven congressional districts.
Shyam Raman, the Democratic Party of Virginia’s Executive Director, says it can be a daunting task, but it’s also a great chance to recruit talent for the rest of your campaign.
“If you can build relationships with people, to get them to sign your petition and track who they are, that’s probably the first group of volunteer prospects that you’re going to reach out to,” Raman told Radio IQ.
The window to collect signatures opened in January. As the weather warms, you’re more likely to see campaign staff hitting popular parts of town, or knocking on your door, as they seek signatures for their candidate to make the ballot.
Both Republican and Democratic party officials told Radio IQ the 10,000 signature threshold is a minimum, with more, sometimes thousands more, to account for duplicates, illegible names or invalid voters.
“You’re going outside, you’re wearing gloves, it's cold, you’re shivering, and all of a sudden you’ve chicken scratched on the petition” Raman said of how a signature might end up invalid. “They look at it and may remember the name in the moment, but they can’t verify that.”
The deadline to submit signatures to the Department of Elections is April 3rd.
Once submitted, the state confirms receipt before sending the signatures back to state parties for verification. Party staff usually handles the verification, running names against a state voter database. But that too isn’t an easy task; each statewide candidate submits more than 10,000 signatures, and they must be verified up until that 10,000 number is met.
Candidates or their representatives are not allowed to be present for the count. Rich Anderson with the Republican Party of Virginia said it’s never been an issue before.
“They’re just going to have to trust the integrity of our crew,” Anderson told Radio IQ. “Our processes are pretty airtight, and we err on the side of fairness.”
The best known state-wide gubernatorial candidates, Abigail Spanberger on the left and Winsome Earl-Sears on the right, have likely been collecting signatures since the window opened months ago. But two Johnny-come-latelies, former Delegate Dave LaRock and former Senator Amanda Chase, threw their names in for the Republican governor slot in recent weeks.
Raman said Virginia campaign finance laws allow for unlimited contributions in state races. That means, he said, it’s not out of the realm of possibility for someone with only a few weeks to collect signatures meet the demand.
“If you’re able to raise large amounts of money in a short amount of time, you can hire firms to do signature collection,” he said.
Election day may be months away on the calendar -eight months to be exact- but Anderson said energy is high and no one should be counted out yet.
“Anyone who wants to say, on our side, 'Winsome is going to definitely win,' or anyone on the Spanberger side who says, 'Spanberger is going to definitely win,' just be quiet, work hard," he told Radio IQ. "This is a swing state. Nobody has a crystal ball.”
Over in the House of Delegates, the bar is much lower. Candidates only have to collect 125 signatures in their district. It’s a threshold some hit after only one day of signature collection.
Anderson said fewer signatures may make collection easier, but confusion from voters still requires additional names
“They have plenty of ‘slop’ in case someone who isn’t qualified signs the form,” Anderson said of the name he’s given to invalid signatures. “That happens in the House of Delegates more because districts are so compact, and they may not be sure which district they live in.”
And Raman had a request for candidates as they approached the filing deadline: double check your paperwork and don’t worry about submitting yours first.
“If you show up at 3AM to be first to submit at noon, and another candidate shows up at 11: 59 AM, the Department of Elections will treat that as a simultaneous filing, and they’ll do a drawing for ballot order.”
As for the paperwork?
“Someone screws this up every single time. This isn’t a partisan issue. It's frustrating for the candidate and the party to hear people talking about this,” he warned, noting there’s a check list DOE makes available to candidates, and they should use that during the submission process.
“So, fill out your f——- paperwork… wait, maybe don’t quote me on that… actually do,” he said. “Maybe that’ll make sure people fill out the f——- paperwork.”
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
