SNS NEWS: Rhode Island Primary Ballot Status

According to Rhode Island law, in order for a candidate to be on the primary ballot on March 4th, they must have 1,000 signatures from RI registered voters. The time allotted for collecting signatures was from 6^th to the 26 of December. Not a lot of time; especially since it’s already a busy time of year with Christmas and all (and below 20 degree temperatures...) . Rhode Island really isn’t a “hot” political state so it is far from being a priority for any campaign – but – not getting on the ballot entails a lack of support, grassroots supporters and is a big embarrassment for any candidate. So that’s why RI matters, not really the votes or delegates – it’s because no one wants to be shamed because they couldn’t make the ballot.

So far, with very few petitions left to count, eleven Democrat and Republican candidates appear to have made it on to the RI ballot. They include Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, Chris Dodd, Dennis Kucinich, Rudy Guiliani, Mike Huckabee, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson and John McCain. The overall leaders in signatures collected were as below:

You can click on the below photo to see the number of signatures collected for each candidate as of January 1^st (all petitions were turned in by Dec. 26).

Candidates that have not and most likely will not make the ballot include Huge Court (908 signatures), Tom Tancredo (538, dropped out of the race and fled to Mexico), Alan Keyes (900), Duncan Hunter (942), Bill Richardson (317), Joe Biden (736), Raymond Stebbins (ever heard of him? Me neither… collected 0 signatures), the amazing Rosemary J. Turner (4) and of course, the SNS News endorsed Democrat candidate Mike Gravel (yes, 0 signatures, shocking)