Why Newt Was Closed Out of Virgina Primary

In a surprisingly unshocking happening, Newt Gingrich was booted off the ticket by the Republican Party of Virgina, as his 10,000 signatures did not qualify.

This seems to be rather odd. How could a major candidate not qualify to register a seemingly measly  10,000 signatures, in his adopted home state nonetheless?

The answer is that Gingrich submitted 11,000 signatures. Now I'm no mathematician, but 11,000 is more than 10,000. So why are Ron Paul and Mitt Romney the only two candidates to qualify on the ballot for 2012?

Because for the first time, the State decided to cross-check voters' names with addresses that said voters originally gave the State's voting registry. This means that if there wasn't a match with the current address/name with the address listed in the original database, the signature was thrown out.

Clearly, this would cause a multitude of thrown out signatures, assuming people moved to different addresses but failed to notify the voter registry.

A Gingrich official shares his unhappiness:

"It is also important to note that this is not an election and therefore the issue is not about preventing fraud or making sure 'every vote counts'.  This is about whether Gingrich, Romney, Paul, and Perry (or Santorum or Bachman for that matter) belong on the Republican ballot for the nomination.  Of course they do.  Keeping them off by some arbitrary process based on potentially inaccurate government data potentially PREVENTS people from casting their vote as they want if their candidate is excluded from the ballot by this process.  Many states, for example, leave the issue of who should be on the ballot for party nomination to the discretion of the Secretary of State and/or the Party."