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Friday 24 February 2012

Review puts Rick Santorum on Indiana primary ballot

Wasif Chudhary


Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum will remain on Indiana's presidential primary ballot.

While the Marion County Board of Voter Registration had earlier fallen eight signatures short of the necessary 500 in the 7th Congressional District, officials there said a review of the petitions that Santorum's campaign submitted confirmed he had enough.

Candidates must get the signatures of 500 registered voters in each of the nine congressional districts. The Indiana Election Commission is holding a hearing at 9 a.m. Friday in the chambers of the Indiana House of Representatives to hear challenges to Santorum's ballot access and to a slew of other candidates, including President Barack Obama, Sen. Richard G. Lugar, and both Republican gubernatorial candidates, U.S. Rep. Mike Pence and Fishers businessman Jim Wallace.

The commission will weigh all the challenges, including those to Santorum, but with Marion County officials now saying he did turn in enough petition signatures there is no chance he would be ejected from the ballot.

LaDonna Freeman, the Democrat member of the Marion County voter registration board, said that a similar review of Wallace's signatures show he remains at least 14 petition signatures short in the 7th District.

Challenges filed against Pence also allege he does not have enough signatures, though counties in every district have certified he does have the required number. Lugar is being challenged by some voters because his home address is in McLean, Va., and Obama is being challenged by voters who do not believe he is a "natural born citizen."

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