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Charlie Riedel / AP
Republican presidential candidate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry speaks during a campaign stop at the Main Street Cafe in Council Bluffs, Iowa, on Tuesday.
After failing to secure a spot in Virginia's presidential primary, the presidential campaign of Gov. Rick Perry on Tuesday filed a federal court challenge to the state's stringent ballot access rules.
Perry was one of several candidates, including Newt Gingrich, who failed to gather 10,000 individual voters' signatures by Friday's deadline.
"We believe that the Virginia provisions unconstitutionally restrict the rights of candidates and voters by severely restricting access to the ballot, and we hope to have those provisions overturned or modified to provide greater ballot access to Virginia voters and the candidates seeking to earn their support," said Perry communications director Ray Sullivan in a statement.
Perry's lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of a state law that says those who circulate petitions to get a candidate on the ballot must be eligible, or registered, to vote in the state. Perry claims that requirement violates his freedom of speech and association.
He also challenges another provision of Virginia law that requires that a portion of signatures for statewide candidates must come from each congressional district in the state. Those signers must attest that they intended to vote in the primary of the candidate's political party.
Perry's campaign notes that other states' laws similar to Virginia's ban on out-of-state petition circulators have been struck down by federal courts.
One of the nation's leading experts on election law predicted tough going for Perry's challenge.
"Such a suit now faces long odds, both legally and politically," said Prof. Rick Hasen of the University of California at Irvine Schoool of law.
The initial hurdle, Hasen explained, is the failure to bring suit before filing time. "This is an emergency of Perry's (and Gingrich's) own making. Surely they knew of the requirement earlier," he said.
Hasen said the federal courts have reached mixed decisions on residency requirements for petition circulators.
Sullivan told NBC News on Friday that the campaign planned to review "the facts and the law to determine whether an appeal or challenge is warranted."
In a statement released to press Tuesday, the Perry campaign argued that the Virginia rules are "onerous" and deny both candidates and voters their 1st and 14th amendment rights "to meaningfully participate in the political process."
The Virginia contest is scheduled for March 6.
NBC News justice correspondent Pete Williams reported from Washington. NBC News correspondent Carrie Dann reported from Osceola, Iowa.
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Perrywinkle is a truly sad part of the history of the state of Texas!
If you can't come up with 10,000 signatures in a state that has about 8,000,000 people you weren't going to get any votes anyway.
Time to tuck your tail between your legs and crawl home.
Too bad Rick See what it feels like to stop people from voting.
Why doesn't Space Commander Rick Perry just "sue" to become President...you know...just eliminate a step or two in his ASCENSION AND CORONATION. Isn't that what ALL KINGS DO??
Gawd....these morons just get more bizarre every day.
And in another really big act of desperation, the SPACE COMMANDER states that he is against ALL ABORTION, including in cases of RAPE.
I suppose this REACH FOR THE RADICAL RELIGIOUS RIGHTWINGNUTS is his idea of getting a boost from the anti-abortion horde....enough to get him a few votes in Iowa....
Good luck SPACE COMMANDER....
Is that a toupe Perry is sporting? Unbelievable characters; he and Gin-grinch! Heard they swap hair pieces time to time, too!
Perry wants to be in the Virginia debate? That's stupid, he was in the lead until he had his first debate and opened his mouth. He should sue for less debates instead of more debates.
Dear Ricky Perry,
The Virginia Electorate doesn't want you.
Over 8 million people in VA and they couldn't find 10,000 who wanted Rick Perry on the ballot. Take a hint, Rick Perry, you are wasting your time and exposing the fact that you are even stupider than we thought you were last week.
Well maybe he should've been gathering signatures instead of making ridiculous campaign commercials and making really DUMB statements about being mistake prone and so forth. Then maybe he wouldn't be in "such a pickle". Boo Hoo, time for him to put on his big-boy pants and move on to the next state.
It is nice to see it happen to a big named big party candidate. Now he knows what it is like for 3rd party and independent candidates to get on the ballot in some states.
If a Democrat sued to get on the ballot, the Republicans would be up in arms that the candidate didn't follow the rules.
It appears that the Republicanazies' efforts at voter suppression and candidate elimination have come back to bite two Republican candidates in the butt! Now that's what I call divine justice.
seems to me he is wasting federal money trying to impinge on the mantra that all radical righties believe in...states rights Tell your story walking Dickie Rickie
Perry, honey, nobody wants you. Go home and stay there.
good lord he's so f'ing stupid.
Mr. Perry and Mr. Gingrich have been running for the Republican nomination for some time now. You would have thought that they would have taken care of the requirements before now.
I guess it’s like the dog ate my home work.
Where I agree Perry has little to no chance in Virginia, he should still be on the ballot as well as the other candidates. All the candidates have been in the race for a few months now and the voters have the right to have their choice on primary election day. It seems like the Virginia election board is telling their voters, " ok here is who we are letting you vote for whether you like it or not. Well if my candidate is not on the ballot then I stay home and not vote because I don't like the two choices. It doesn't really give a clear picture of what the Virginia voter wants going into the general election. That makes it not really fair to any of the candidates or the voters of Virginia.
Except , Perry is supporting voter fraud since it was determined that he did not have enough valid signatures ,
It is the same thing as wanting to count votes that were determined fraud because the ballots were cast by those that were illegal aliens!
The way primaries work really suck. Primaries should be ran all at the same time across all states. Its not right the they start in the East and by the time they get to states in the West, people are already knocked off the ballot that people want to vote for. The electorial college system sucks too for that matter.
Wait a minute Ricky!? What happened to the flat tax?
Perry is a hypocrite. He claims to be the "states rights" champion but now he's suing a state because he can't follow their rules? Typical. Even if he were to win the lawsuit that doesn't help the fact that no one is going to vote for him anyway.
So he got upset because someone checked the names and determined that far to many were not able to vote!
Why is Perry willing to support voter fraud !
While Virginia is not really the south it is close enough to be contaminated by stupid. Their rules are ridiculous and even in this one I have to support Perry. Not that rick Perry has an ice cube's chance on a hot griddle of being nominated for anything. He needs to go bak to Texas where his level of intelligence is not noticed.
These people are from the same party who seek to strip various categories of Americans of their right to vote by drumming up all sorts of requirements and tests in order to vote.
Another blatant hypocrasy.
So, if Rick Perry is retired, who is the Governor of Texas??????
We are paying through the nose for the attorney general to " run" our state of Texas!
Bunch of money grubbing jerks!
For State's rights or Against State's rights? Make up your mind, Rick.