Updated October 28, 11 a.m. ET
Gary Johnson has had a hard time being taken seriously as a GOP presidential contender, despite his experience as a two-term governor of the swing state of New Mexico. But now he has a more immediate problem: Getting on the ballot in New Hampshire.
Today is the deadline of the two-week filing period to get on the state ballot — actually one of the easier states to get onto the primary ballot, with a filing fee of only $1,000 and no petition requirement. However, the campaign missed Thursday’s deadline to file by mail or through an agent, and any filings on the last day must be done in person.
“The technical term is that we screwed up,” communications director Joe Hunter told NBC News.
Thus, Johnson will have to get on a plane and rush to the state, in order to file before the close of business at 5 p.m. ET. This gets even funnier when one considers that his campaign had pre-scheduled events today in Arizona, all the way at the opposite end of the country.
TPM placed a call to the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s office, which told us that at time of writing they had not received a filing from Johnson.
Late Update: Johnson communications director Joe Hunter told TPM that the candidate has arrived in New Hampshire, and will file for the ballot shortly.
“There was a bit of a miscommunication between our NH staff and the rest of our staff,” said Hunter, “and as a result Gary ended up needing to go to New Hampshire, and that’s what he did. Nothing more complicated than that.”
The candidate has an appointment at the Secretary of State’s office for 11:15 a.m. ET, Hunter said: “Knowing Gary’s penchant for being on time, he’s probably already up at the Secretary of State’s office.”
Having mentioned Johnson’s penchant for being on time, we asked, was that example followed by the rest of the campaign?
Hunter laughed. “Apparently not.”
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