On Super Tuesday (March 6) Virginians will be given very limited choices. There won't be any Democratic primary and the Republican primary will feature only two options Mitt Romney and Ron Paul. Virginia does not have party registration, though, so any registered voter can vote in this primary, and I am encouraging all Obama supporters to do so and vote for Paul to give Romney an embarrassing defeat. The best news is that if this should happen Romney can't even complain about Democrats unfairly causing mischief in the Republican primary because he has already admitted that he did took the same type of action in 1992 when he voted for Tsongas in the Democratic primary although supporting Bush. (And at least he could have voted in the Republican primary if he had wanted to do so, Virginians have only one option if they want to vote in a primary). Below the fold I'll go into more detail about some of the issues involved, but this is the core. Virginians, you can and should vote against Romney on March 6th.
The Virginia Primary
One interesting provision regarding presidential primaries in Virginia is that
Whenever only one candidate for a party's nomination for President of the United States has met the requirements to have his name on the ballot, he will be declared the winner and no presidential primary for that party will be held.
That indeed happened with Barack Obama as the only candidate to qualify for the Democratic ballot and was thus declared the winner. Only Ron Paul and Mitt Romney qualified for the Republican ballot. Virginia election law also declares that
No write-in shall be permitted on ballots in primary elections.
Finally Virginia has an open primary. Any registered voter can vote in any primary.
D. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, any person who is otherwise qualified and will be 18 years of age on or before the day of the next November general election shall be permitted to register in advance of and also vote in any presidential primary and any other primary held on the same day.
Questions
Even if it's legal, is it ethical to vote in another party's primary when you have no intention of supporting the candidate?
In general that is a difficult question and different people may reach different conclusions , but in this case several considerations lead me to believe this is clearly acceptable. First of all, as noted above this is the ONLY presidential primary available to Virginians. Secondly, the candidate whom this would hurt has admitted to doing the same thing! He has actually given several storis as to why he voted for Paul Tsongas in the 1992 Democratic primary, but two reasons he has given was to vote against Clinton and to weaken the Democratic field. It is only fair, then, for Virginians who support Obama to vote against Romney and weaken the Republican field.
Didn't I hear talk about the Republicans requiring a loyalty oath to stop this sort of cross-party mischief?
Originally they were going to do so (although it would not have been legally binding and would be challenged), but they recently dropped their plans to do so after receiving much criticism (especially from Republicans who said they might not want to support Romney or Paul).
Sounds great. What do I need to do?
First of all, register to vote by 22 days before the primary which would be by Monday, February 13. Secondly find your polling place and show up to vote between 6am and 7pm. Don't let anyone tell you that you can't vote unless you're a Republican. It's just not true. You have a right to cast a vote against Romney.