The Senate’s Privileges and Elections committee has approved — narrowly — a bill from Sen. Mark Obenshain that would allow party registration in Virginia. The summary text of SB 1060 reads:
Primary elections; voter registration by political party. Adds party affiliation to the information that an applicant is asked to provide when registering to vote. The applicant may indicate that he is an independent. The bill requires the State Board of Elections, in September 2015, to notify all registered voters of the new party registration law and send them a return card to indicate their party affiliation or independent status. Voters may change their party affiliation or independent status by written notice at any time before the registration records are closed in advance of an election. The bill (i) requires the state party chairman to notify the State Board by January 31 of each year whether the party will close or open its primaries, (ii) requires that primary candidate petitions be signed and witnessed by voters registered as affiliated with the party conducting the primary, (iii) sets the required number of petition signatures at one percent of the number of voters registered as affiliated with the party in the election district where the primary is being held, and (iv) allows an official political party to retain that status as long as at least 15 percent of the Commonwealth’s registered voters are registered as affiliated with that party.
Long overdue.
And the timing is interesting, considering one Republican district chairman has “promised” to lead a “viable” third party in Virginia should either Mitt Romney or Jeb Bush become the 2016 Republican nominee.
No word on whether a split would ensue if, say, Carly Fiorina or Chris Christie, Lindsey Graham or, God help us, Donald Trump, wound up with the nod. But there’s still plenty of time left…
