Here's a short story:

(CNN) -- Only two Republican presidential candidates will appear on the ballot in Virginia next year, regardless of how many are in the race. 

Mitt Romney and Ron Paul will have the Dominion State all to themselves. Supporters of Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, Jon Huntsman and Michele Bachmann will have to be content with yard signs or donations as ways of cheering on their favorite would-be nominee. 

That's because their campaigns failed to gain the requisite 10,000 signatures. It is, to be sure, a self-inflicted wound, a measure of some organizational chaos. But it is also a function of illogically restrictive local laws. They not only impede ballot access but end up denying open representative democracy to operate on the road to the Oval Office. 

The United States is the only nation in the world, save Switzerland, that does not have uniform federal ballot access laws, according to Ballot Access News, a website run by Richard Winger that is dedicated to the issue. This may reflect the country's closely held federalism, but it can create chaos in a presidential year. In many cases, the rules are imposed by state party bosses who are less interested in democracy than in rigging the system to benefit their favored candidates. 

Take, for example, my home state of New York. It votes reliably Democratic in presidential years, at least since Ronald Reagan thrashed Walter Mondale in 1984. But the state's primary delegates can still be a prize in a protracted Republican nomination fight. In 1999, John McCain had to sue to even have his name appear on the ballot alongside George W. Bush because the Republican state party chair and his committee essentially decided that Bush would be their nominee without the inconvenience of putting it to a vote. Local laws allowed them to restrict ballot access until public pressure and a court injunction overruled their attempted end-run around democracy. Each presidential cycle, the corrupt kabuki continues.  (End of story)

Provide your best guess for the following question. Give ONLY the guess, no other words or explanation.

For example:

Guess: <most likely guess, as short as possible; not a complete sentence, just the guess!>

Here are a few examples of questions and answers:

Question: Who are the two people on the ballet?
Guess: Mitt Romney and Ron Paul

Question: Why didn't the others get on the ballot?
Guess: their campaigns failed to gain 10,000 signatures.

Question: What countries do not have a federal ballot access law?
Guess: United States and Switzerland

Question: Who said that?
Guess: Ballot Access News

Question: Whose it run by?
Guess: Richard Winger

Question: What side does New York vote?
Guess: Democratic

Question: What party is John McCain?
Guess: Republican

Question: What about George W. Bush?
Guess: Republican

Question: What is the nickname for Virginia?
Guess: Dominion State

Question: What do the ones who did not get on the ballet have to do to get votes?
Guess: yard signs or donations

Question: How many have to do that?
Guess: Five

Question: Is the law unrestrictive for them?
Guess: No

Question: What year did McCain have to sue?
Guess: 1999

Question: What year did Reagan win his election?
Guess: 1984

Question: Who did he win against?
Guess: Walter Mondale

Question: What party was he?
Guess: Reagan was Republican.

Now answer the following question in the same format.

Question: What state does the author reside in?

New York