Romney legal challenge to Johnson fails in Virginia

The Republicans have been attempting to lawyer LP Nominee, Gary Johnson off the ballot in a number of swing states in the belief that there are only two parties allowed to contest the Presidency. Flush with hundreds of millions of dollars, they have been tying the Johnson campaign down with several frivolous challenges to the party’s ballot status. They have just come a gutser in Virginia:

The Virginia Board of Elections today rejected a challenge by the Republican Party of Virginia to petitions submitted to place former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson on the state's ballot as the Libertarian nominee for President. The Board of Elections' decision clears the way for Johnson's name to appear on the November ballot.

The attempt to remove Johnson's name from the ballot was one of several such efforts by Republican Party representatives in key states. Challenges to the two-term New Mexico governor's ballot access are pending in Pennsylvania, Iowa, Michigan and Oklahoma. A challenge lodged last week in Ohio has since been dropped.

Applauding the Virginia decision, Johnson campaign advisor Ron Nielson said, "Virginia is one of the toughest states in the nation in which to get on the ballot, but we knew we had met the requirements, and that the Republicans' challenge was without merit. There is, of course, some irony here, given that a couple of Republican candidates in the primary failed to meet Virginia's requirements.”

"The larger issue is the guerilla ballot access war being waged nationwide by the Republican Party on behalf of Mitt Romney. They clearly do not want voters to have the option of voting for Gov. Johnson in key states, and are frantically mounting challenges wherever they can in those states, such as Michigan, Pennsylvania and Iowa. They tried in both Ohio and Virginia, and failed.”

"With their millions of dollars and endless supply of lawyers, Romney and the Republicans are forcing our campaign and our volunteers to protect and defend the simple democratic opportunity for voters in these states to support the candidate of their choice.”

"Anyone who does not see a pattern here, given their serial ballot challenges and their treatment of Rep. Ron Paul at the convention in Tampa, is simply not looking. The national Republican Party and their candidate for President don't want voters to have the opportunity to cast a vote for real liberty.”

More information is available at Governor Johnson’s website.