DATE: Tuesday, November 25, 1997            TAG: 9711250587

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: STAFF REPORT 

DATELINE: RICHMOND                          LENGTH:   21 lines

ELECTIONS BOARD DECERTIFIES REFORM PARTY

The Reform Party of Virginia, which had been designated as a political party in the state since February 1995, was decertified Monday by the State Board of Elections.

The state's definition of a recognized party includes organizations that received at least 10 percent of the total vote cast for any statewide office in either of the two preceding statewide general elections. These parties have less stringent requirements for getting on the ballot.

Though Reform Party nominee J. Marshall Coleman received 11.4 percent of the vote in his bid for U.S. senator in 1994, succeeding nominees - presidential candidate H. Ross Perot in 1996, and gubernatorial candidate Sue Harris DeBauche and lieutenant governor candidate Bradley E. Evans in November 1997 - each received below 10 percent of the vote.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu