By August 1, 2008 the Indy Greens had submitted over 18,000 petition signatures to the state board of elections to put the stand-in Bloomberg/Paul ticket on the ballot in Virginia. On August 15, 2008 the Virginia State Board of Elections confirmed that they had collected enough signatures to put Bloomberg and Paul on the ballot. Bloomberg withdrew from the Indy Greens ballot line on September 5, 2008. Indy Greens then offered the nomination to Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens to run in promotion of his plan to reduce the United States' foreign oil intake by investing in alternative energy.