New rules for voting in Virginia's Republican primary

[resqgeek]

I have voted in very few primary elections in my life. As a voter in New York, I wasn't eligible to vote in any primaries, because I refused to register as a member of a political party, and the primaries are only open to party members. Since I moved to Virginia, there have been precious few primaries, so my opportunities to vote in them have been limited.

The last time I voted in a Republican primary was in 2000, during presidential race (and for the record, I did NOT vote for "W"). Virginia does not record party affiliation in the voter registration information and therefore cannot restrict access to primaries using party membership. Back in 2000, the Republican primary was open to anyone who was willing to sign a (wholly unenforceable) pledge not to participate in any other party's nominating process. Since Al Gore was pretty much a lock for the Democratic nomination, this really was a no brainer for me...I signed the pledge and voted (which gained me about four years worth of Republican Party mailings).

Apparently, the Virginia Republican Party feels that it isn't sufficient for voters to promise not to participate in any other party's primaries. In the upcoming presidential primary, they will require voters to sign a pledge that will read:

Instruction to voter:

You can vote in this presidential primary only if you sign and print your name to the voter pledge below. You will not be permitted to vote if you refuse to do so.

Pledge: I, the undersigned, pledge that I intend to support the nominee of the Republican Party for President.

Okay, so the pledge cannot be enforced, since our votes are completely secret, but still, I can't promise to support the Republican nominee, regardless of who ends up winning the nomination. I might like to vote in the Republican primary, and if the right candidate were to win the nomination, I might even support him in the general election, but the chance that the Republican nominee will be someone I can support seems extremely remote (and will probably be even more remote by the time the Virginia primary arrives).

So, it looks like I'll be voting in the Democratic Party primary on 12 February, unless the Democrats also decide to require me to sign a pledge that I can't commit to. Sometimes I think I'm just too honest for my own good.

More details in today's Washington Post.

Comments

[buffra.livejournal.com]

That seems....that seems....Are they ALLOWED to do that???

How many people, do you suppose, will feel like they have committed to voting for the Republican candidate as a result of signing such a pledge? And so will either NOT vote or will vote something other than their conscience? Not realizing (perhaps) that it is unenforceable?)

[florafloraflora.livejournal.com]

Wow, how... shifty. My reaction would tend to be that the pledge request was illegitimate, so I wouldn't be bound to stick with the pledge should I agree to it.

I mean, what are they going to do? If they don't get as many votes in the general election as they had votes during the primary, are they going to pick a few pledge signers at random and go beat them with lead pipes?

[kiptrix.livejournal.com]

Well, that stinks! It doesn't even sound constitutional. But I'm with you, in that I wouldn't vote in the primary at all under that condition.
When I moved from NY to South Carolina, I was surprised to learn that one can vote in either primary, and you do not have to sign any type of pledge. I actually voted in a Republican primary (and it felt very strange), because there was no Democrat running for the office, and I wanted to have a say in who was the Republican candidate, since that candidate would automatically be the winner.