A federal judge has ruled that Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Jon Huntsman will not be added to Virginia's primary ballot.
Only Mitt Romney and Ron Paul will be on the ballot for the March 6 primary.
Virginia has been a tough ballot to crack for several GOP candidates because the state requires campaigns to collect signatures from at least 10,000 registered voters.
Romney and Paul were the only candidates who managed to do so, the Associated Press reports.
Perry sued, and was later joined in the lawsuit by Gingrich, Huntsman and Santorum.
But on Friday, a federal judge in Richmond refused to add them, saying the candidates should have challenged Virginia's primary qualifying rules earlier.
Judge John Gibney Jr. said the campaigns had from July to mid-December to obtain the signatures, and could have challenged the requirement during that period. "The plaintiffs knew the rules months ago," he said.
Mr Gibney added that if the challenge had been filed earlier, he would have ordered the signature requirement be thrown out.
The Virginia case is not unique.
In other states, the four frozen out candidates have failed to file full slates of delegates with state or party officials, raising questions about whether these candidates have the resources to wage effective national campaigns.
And if one of them were able to marshal enough anti-Romney forces to challenge the front-runner, the ballot blunders could limit their ability to win delegates in key states.
Rich Galen, a GOP strategist and former Gingrich aide who is neutral in the 2012 race, said: 'This is why you need a real-life, no-kidding-around campaign.
NOTE: My personal view is that the fix is already in. It's clear that Ron Paul is gaining incredible momentum, and that the "contest" will be between Obama & Paul. With Obama behaving more like Paul during the pre election period, then will be able to revert to himself after being selected....again.
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