Santorum, Gingrich, Huntsman join Perry's ballot suit

Three other presidential hopefuls have joined Texas Gov. Rick Perry's federal suit aimed at getting on Virginia's March 6 Republican primary ballot.

Perry is challenging the constitutionality of a Virginia law requiring people collecting signatures for ballot access to be state residents. The defendants are the State Board of Elections and Pat Mullins, chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia.

Perry did not collect the required 10,000 signatures to be placed on the ballot. The state GOP certified only two candidates, Texas Rep. Ron Paul and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

On Wednesday, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman filed a motion in U.S. District Court in Richmond to join Perry as plaintiffs.

According to court papers, Gingrich filed 11,100 signatures but failed to submit enough "verified" signatures to the State Board of Elections. (Earlier, Gingrich said, "1,500 of them were by one guy who frankly committed fraud.")

Santorum and Huntsman also did not submit enough signatures by the deadline.

Last week, U.S. District Judge John A. Gibney Jr. set a Jan. 13 hearing on Perry's emergency motion and gave any other parties who may wish to intervene on one side or the other until Friday to notify the court.

The judge approved their motion to join the case later on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, who heads Romney's presidential campaign in Virginia, said the rules that have governed Virginia's system for decades shouldn't be changed in the middle of the process just because some campaigns weren't organized enough to comply with the rules in a timely manner.

"Anyone who wants to run for president should be able to get 10,000 signatures in Virginia," Bolling said Wednesday in a meeting with the Richmond Times-Dispatch editorial board.

On Tuesday, the State Board of Elections and the chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia asked Gibney to dismiss the suit.

Officials said the ballots must be printed by Jan. 9 — before Gibney's hearing — because state law requires that absentee ballots be mailed 45 days ahead of the primary to military and overseas voters.