Gingrich, Perry not on Virginia ballot

RICHMOND, Va., Dec. 24 (UPI) -- Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry failed to hand in enough valid signatures to qualify for Virginia's Republican primary ballot, officials said Saturday.

The Republican Party of Virginia said former House Speaker Gingrich and Texas Gov. Perry failed to submit at least 10,000 signatures of registered voters to get on the ballot for the March 6 presidential primary, The Washington Post reported.

"After verification, RPV has determined that Newt Gingrich did not submit required 10k signatures and has not qualified for the VA primary," the party said on Twitter.

While the Gingrich campaign said it was planning a write-in campaign, write-in votes in primaries are not valid under state law, CNN reported.

"We will work with the Republican Party of Virginia to pursue an aggressive write-in campaign to make sure that all the voters of Virginia are able to vote for the candidate of their choice," campaign director Michael Krull said in a written statement.

The Republican Party of Virginia certified former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas to be on the ballot Friday.

All four candidates turned in thousands of signatures by 5 p.m. Thursday.

Jerry Kilgore, a former Virginia attorney general and chairman of Perry's campaign in the commonwealth, said qualifying for the Virginia ballot is a "daunting task."

"Hopefully, he will do better in other states," he said. "He can focus on other states."

Michele Bachmann, Jon Huntsman and Rick Santorum all failed to submit signatures Thursday.