Richmond, Virginia—On Thursday, the Republican Party of Virginia filed a lawsuit to remove Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe from the ballot in a desperate attempt to salvage their gubernatorial dreams. This last-ditch effort is yet another pathetic attempt by Republicans to ignore the will of the voters.

“This GOP lawsuit to remove Terry McAuliffe from the ballot is a pathetic attempt by Republicans to gobble up more power. Republicans have seen recent polling, and they know they don’t have a chance, so they are pulling out desperation moves to try to steal the election out from under the voters,” Vanessa Clinton, Press Secretary at Progress Virginia said. “It’s not surprising that Republicans are this frantic to hoard power. From peddling the Big Lie, misleading voters about his policies, and skipping debates so he doesn’t have to answer for it, Glenn Youngkin and the Republican Party of Virginia have proven that they’ll do literally anything to win. This is just another attempt to silence certain votes for political gain, and we won’t let them get away with it.” 

Virginia Republicans file suit over McAuliffe’s paperwork [Associated Press, Jill Colvin]

“McAuliffe won a June primary election for the Democratic nomination. But the lawsuit argues that McAuliffe should be disqualified from running in the November general election because of the omission of his signature — a move election experts say is unlikely.”

“This is nothing more than a desperate Trumpian move by the Virginia GOP to deprive voters of a choice in this election because Terry is consistently leading in the polls,” he said in a statement.”

“‘I predict that this lawsuit will fail,’ said Michael Gilbert, the vice dean of the University of Virginia School of Law… ‘The violation is harmless, and the remedy sought — removing McAuliffe from the general election ballot in November — is extreme. That remedy would scramble a lot of plans and frustrate a lot of voters, all in service of a minor rule (so minor that no one noticed the error earlier),’ he wrote in an email. ‘It’s hard to see how that would promote democracy in the Commonwealth.’”

In 2019, Nick Freitas, a [Republican] member of the Virginia House of Delegates, was forced to run a write-in campaign after he was disqualified because of a paperwork snafu.