Algona, Iowa (CNN) - Newt Gingrich cited fraud Wednesday as the reason he didn't get on the Virginia primary ballot.
Last week his campaign acknowledged they used paid volunteers to scramble to get the required 10,000 signatures but fell short after the former House speaker and Virginia resident boasted his campaign was submitting as many as 12,000-14,000 signatures.
On a campaign stop at an Algona chocolate store, the former House speaker said the "mistake" occurred because one of their workers committed fraud.
"We hired somebody who turned in false signatures. We turned in 11,100 – we needed 10,000 – 1,500 of them were by one guy who frankly committed fraud."
The campaign called the Virginia ballot qualification process a "failed system" after they learned that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Texas Rep. Ron Paul were the only candidates that were successful.
Follow Shawna Shepherd on Twitter: @ShepherdCNN
From CNN Politics
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Voter fraud by the GOP???
Say it ain't so!!!
When did he hire Acorn??
I didn't think they would work for a Repubtard!!
Oh wait....we are only supposed to see what the Tea Monkeys want us to see...
"After Obama and Bush, he would have brought a cerebral tone to the White House."
Newt has nothing on Obama in the intelligence department. He's not as smart as he keeps telling people he is. I've always wondered who he was trying to convince – the public or himself. . . I think himself. Because everytime he opens his big mouth and his version of history comes out, it shows how dumb he really is. We remember Newt. Quit trying to rewrite history to your advantage. We have not forgotten you and who you really are. . .
You people who hate President Obama should all give yourself an enema. You're so impacted.
Biggest fraud ever. Well, maybe he could take second place to Bush/Cheney/Haliburton/Enron.
Oh wait – there's another idiot. Perry trying to change Virginia rules so that he can get on the ballot there. Wonder what he would do if a dem tried that in Texas? He's actuall SUING THE STATE OF VIRGINIA!
Fraud or not – it was a good day for America!
The worker may be the fraud, but everybody else on the campaign is incompetent. I've worked on political campaigns. If ONE PERSON is turning in 1500 signatures, the campaign should have randomly checked some of the signatures itself.
If he'll cheat on his wives, he cheat in every aspect of his life. So far, he's batting 100% CHEATER.
They pulled the story about Gingrich's latest whor... err I mean wife speaking for this?
Come on Newt put the blame where it belongs, take some responsibility.
Newt calls VA system a failed system because he failed to submit the 10,000 signatures he needed. Knowing that he needed 10,000 signatures and that some were bound to be thrown out you would think he would have made sure that he had way more than 11,000 signatures. Newt doesn't like the rules that VA has setup so now he (like many Republicans) want to change the rules. How sad!
Was this guy trying to collect the money with out doing the work or was he trying to torpedo Gingrich? I'm sure Newtie learned his lesson here and won't be vulnerable to one or even a few bad actors. This guy deserves jail.
Said it before, needs to be said again. His "ground game" sucks, always has. Welcome to the big-time, cupcake.
So if Ron Paul is guilty for the words someone else placed in his newsletter, is Newt Gingrich responsible for the fraud done by his paid campaign volunteers? Will the media pick up on that parallelism and try to trash Newt as they are trashing Paul?
This is the exact same situation which happened to ACORN except ACORN turned in the fraudsters themselves. We should now have congressional hearings to de-fund Newt Gingrich.
James O'Keefe is doing consulting work in Virginia for Newt??? The son Newt never had but always wanted.
They're claiming it's a flawed system so I have to ask two questions. 1) Is it the same system that was in place last year or the last time it was needed? 2) How many people failed to get on the ballot the last time? If the answers are 1) "It is the same now as it was then" and 2) "None failed last time" then I'm going to venture that the system is fine and it is the organizations responsible for collecting the signatures that are flawed.
This reminds me of obama and the voter forgery/fraud investigation in Indiana.
Maybe if Nut Newt hadn't spent so much time trying to butter up the religious right on his so called "moral" agreement, still laughing about that one, he might have gotten on the ballot. As for Perry, he's just plain stupid. Like they say everything in Texas is bigger and the he's the biggest fool of them all.
He should have known better than to hire former ACORN workers.
Tom
"You people who hate President Obama should all give yourself an enema. You're so impacted."
Its all baby stuff compared to what they said about Bush. Where I live hating Obama is a given and I travel seven southern states in my job and its not much different. We do have a few exceptions like the play solldier beneath you.
Regardless of the people you HIRED to gather signatures, you're still responsible. Please sit down and shut up.
They probably had to resort to fraud because they couldn't find that many people in his own state that wanted to vote for him. They were stupid to not know that states requiring signatures, call around and verify the signatures.
Wow!
Oh mine! Signature FRAUD by GOP or the party of delusional righteousness?
This can't be TRUTH. This is CNN Joke on Newt. ..................right?
He cant write in a vote in VA, so who is he going to vote for? Or is he going to be un American and not vote at all? Oh the irony.....
Isn't it odd how the republicans are running around like chickens with their heads chopped off yelling fraud, fraud, we have to stop the Democrats from voting they are committing fraud. Then when ever it comes to light ALL THE FRAUD HAS BEEN COMMITTED BY THE REPUBLICANS. Do you all remember how the republican clerk in WI found...TWICE .....extra votes to put the republican ahead and win. Do you remember how she certified Van Hollen as the AG with more votes than was cast. She is still working in Madison. Guess you can't be too careful when you are a republican you want to make sure you everything stacked in your favor.