Joe Rogalsky, The Examiner
2007-06-05 07:00:00.0
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Richmond -

When Virginians go to the polls in next week’s primary elections, the process will be open to all eligible voters regardless of their party affiliation.

Despite various legislative attempts at reform over the years, Virginia has a primary system that does not exclude non-party members. For example, a Republican could vote in the 34th House District race between Margaret Vanderhye and Richard Sullivan to be the Democrats’ nominee facing the GOP’s David Hunt. And Fairfax County Democrats in the Springfield Board of Supervisors District could help decide the contest between Republicans Pat Herrity and Stan Reid.

Unlike many states, Virginia does not require voters to register as a member of a party or as an independent. That would have to change if the commonwealth went to a closed primary; otherwise election officials would have no way of knowing a voter’s affiliation.

The open primary system is entrenched in Virginia law, Virginia Republican Party spokesman Shaun Kenney said, because for decades Virginia was a one-party state. Democrats, who enjoyed a boom in the South after the Civil War, cemented their control of the commonwealth when Gov. Harry F. Byrd and his legendary political machine rose to power in the 1930s.

“Virginia did not become a two-party state until the 1960s,” Kenney said. “We have an antiquated system being applied to a 21st-century electorate.”

Virginia Democratic Party Executive Director Amy Reger said the system causes candidates to widen their campaign appeal.

“We certainly encourage all voters to come to the polls,” she said.

States handle their primaries differently. Maryland law, for example, allows each party to decide who votes in their primaries, which means the primaries are usually limited to party members, according the state’s Board of Elections.

Critics of closed primaries say voters should be free to choose any candidate from any party and the exclusionary rules give the major parties too much power. California voters approved a referendum in 1996 that opened primaries to all voters regardless of party. But the U.S. Supreme Court declared the system unconstitutional in 2000 because it violated the First Amendment’s freedom-of-association guarantees. California now limits primaries to party members and unaffiliated voters if the party allows.

jrogalsky@dcexaminer.com