Thirteen presidential candidates will be on Rhode Island’s March 4 primary ballots, Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis said yesterday. To qualify, candidates were required to collect the signatures of at least 1,000 eligible Rhode Island voters.

“One sign that Rhode Islanders are taking this primary very seriously is the number of signatures they submitted. In 2004, only President Bush collected more than 2,000. This year, seven candidates exceeded that mark,” said Mollis. “We certified more than 25,000 signatures in all.”

Republican Ron Paul led all candidates with 3,109 certified signatures. Other Republicans who qualified were Hugh Cort, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, Duncan Hunter, Alan Keyes, John McCain, Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson.

Hillary Clinton led the Democrats with 2,902 certified signatures. John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich and Barack Obama will be on the Democratic ballot as well.

Hunter and Keyes broke through the 1,000-certified-signature requirement yesterday to become the last two candidates to qualify to run in the primary.

The full list of candidates and certified ballots can be seen on the Secretary of State Web site, www.sec.state.ri.us/candidates/presidential/

Twenty candidates had filed declarations with the secretary of state. But Democrats Joe Biden, Chris Dodd and Republican Tom Tancredo withdrew from the race. Others, such as Democrat Bill Richardson — who withdrew from the national race yesterday — did not get enough certified signatures to make the ballot.

Mollis will hold a public lottery Feb. 1 at the State House to determine the order in which candidates’ names appear on the ballots.