Independent candidate for Kentucky governor and internet pioneer Drew Curtis needs to get 5,000 signatures by August 11th in order to appear on the ballot in November’s general election.
But Curtis won’t be allowed to gather signatures online.
Drew Curtis says he has 50,000 loyal readers from Kentucky on the news aggregation website he founded, Fark.com.
He was hoping to have supporters sign a petition online to support his candidacy, but secretary of state Alison Lundergan Grimes says officials wouldn’t be able to compare signatures online to voter registration cards, so Curtis is stuck gathering signatures on paper.
University of Kentucky election law professor Joshua Douglas says that there hasn’t been much of a precedent for allowing e-signature petitions across the country.“Traditionally you always get a decent number of signatures more than what’s needed but for major party candidates that’s rarely a problem because the party apparatus helps them. They know how to do signature drives.”
Curtis announced his candidacy in January along with his wife, Heather, who is running for lieutenant governor.
