Gingrich blames fraud in Virginia signature collecting

A worker collecting signatures to get Republican GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich on the Virginia primary ballot turned in fraudulent signatures, Gingrich told a woman at a campaign stop in Iowa on Wednesday.

Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond confirmed the story, which was initially reported on CNN, and said: "We are evaluating our options."

Of the 11,100 signatures the campaign turned in, 1,500 of them turned in by the worker were false, Gingrich said. He said that the campaign needed 10,000 to be placed on the ballot.

Virginia Republican Party officials said that Gingrich, who lives in Virginia, failed to meet the requirement to get on the ballot for the March 6 primary.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry also failed to qualify for the ballot. He announced on Tuesday that his campaign is suing the state party over access to the ballot.