DALE CITY, Va. — It’s not easy being a third party candidate running for Congress in Northern Virginia. Just ask Mark Gibson.
This year, in Virginia’s 11th Congressional District, the only way for an independent third-party candidate like Gibson to be listed on the ballot is to have 1,000 signatures on a ballot petition, which then must be submitted to the state’s office of elections. Gibson has about 500 signatures so far and he’s going for a total of 1,500 to ensure he has more than enough.