A group of Republican legislators, emboldened by last week’s flap over a primary election pledge, will push next year to require Virginians to declare a political affiliation when registering to vote in the state.
Del. Scott Lingamfelter, R-Woodbridge, introduced legislation this week that would not only mandate that voters declare themselves Democrats, Republicans or independents, but also would permit parties to allow only their members to vote in primaries.
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The bill would solve concerns the state Republican Party has voiced for a decade.
GOP officials have long feared that Democrats or independents would crash a primary and select a candidate not favored by most party members.
Last week, Virginia Republicans received approval from the state elections board to require voters in the Feb. 12 presidential primary to sign a pledge promising to support the party’s nominee in the general election before entering the polling booth.
They shelved the idea Friday, however, after public criticism. Because the Democratic presidential party is the same day, Republican officials said Friday they now
think voters won’t cross party lines.
Republican Chairman John Hager said he hopes that attention to the “statement of intention” received will persuade legislators from both sides of the aisle to support party registration, because Democrats eventually may have similar concerns.
“The idea of the statement of intention is that Republicans want Republicans to pick Republican nominees,” Hager told The Examiner. “It is a pretty simple idea.”
Republican lawmakers have introduced several versions of a party-registration bill since the mid-1990s, but the measures have always run into deadly bipartisan opposition.
“This would restrict this element of the political process to the true believers, and I think that is bad for politics,” said Del. Bob Brink, D-Arlington. “It is good for the insiders but bad for everyone else.”
Tom Intorcio, a policy analyst with the National Conference of State Legislatures, said Virginia would be the 25th state to restrict which voters can participate in a primary if Lingamfelter’s bill becomes law.
“Closed primaries are the oldest form of a primary,” he said.
“They were instituted to give more voice to the rank and file and to check the power of party
leaders.”
