Board set to kill GOP oath / GOP member turns against loyalty pledge
Cfortunato
Tuesday, November 23, 1999
http://www.timesdispatch.com/dailynews/virginia/elex23.shtml
BY TYLER WHITLEY
Times-Dispatch Staff Writer
The State Board of Elections appeared ready yesterday to repeal the loyalty
oath that Republicans are demanding of people who vote in the Republican
presidential primary next Feb. 29.
This raises the question of whether Virginia Republicans will have any choice
in determining their presidential nominee.
Pina Brooks Swift of Falmouth, chairwoman of the three-member election board,
said the Election Day pledge would cause nothing but "grief" for election
officials.
Swift, a Republican who reluctantly voted for the oath in July, said she wanted
to rescind her vote, and Democratic member Michael Brown said he, too, was
opposed to the oath. Brown voted against the proposal in July.
But Brown said that as a courtesy the Republican Party should be given a chance
to state its case. So the state board put off a vote until tomorrow.
J. Randy Forbes, chairman of the state GOP, expressed disappointment at the
proposed action. He said the national party requires such an oath because
Virginia does not have party registration. If the oath is rescinded, the
party's delegation to the national presidential convention will not be allowed
to nominate the party's presidential candidate.
"We've taken a course of action based on what the board did in July," Forbes
said. "It's very difficult when people are flip-flopping on their opinions."
Swift said she had traveled to five election districts on Election Day and
election officials "are not happy" that they will be called on to enforce such
an oath. The oath would require voters to certify that they intended to vote
for the nominee of the Republican Party in the November general election. They
would sign a slip of paper before being allowed to vote.
There is no way of enforcing the pledge.
Trying to gain more influence in the presidential process, the Republicans
pushed through the 1999 General Assembly a bill setting up the Feb. 29
winner-take-all primary. The Republicans hoped this would make Virginia a
player early enough in the process to draw attention from the presidential
candidates. Virginia would be eighth in the primary process and would cast its
votes ahead of such large states as New York and California, but still behind
New Hampshire, South Carolina and Michigan.
Democrats opted to stay with the caucus process, in which delegates are elected
at April caucuses and May congressional district conventions, then at the state
convention.
In another matter, the elections board made official the results of the Nov. 2
General Assembly elections, including the 37-vote victory of Democrat Leslie L.
Byrne over Republican Sen. Jane Woods in Fairfax County's 34th Senatorial
District. Byrne received 13,719 votes to Woods' 13,682.
A spokesman for Woods said she will seek a recount under the provisions of
state law, which allow a recount when the margin is less than 1 percent. If the
margin is less than one-half of 1 percent, as in the case of the Byrne-Woods
race, the state will pay the costs of the recount.
The final canvass did not overturn any election results, so the 2000 House of
Delegates will have 52 Republicans, 47 Democrats and one independent. If
Byrne's victory is upheld in court the Senate will have 21 Republicans and 19
Democrats.
Despite the history-making nature of the election and the record spending on
it, turnout was unusually low. A total of 1,373,527 persons voted, just 36
percent of the 3.8 million registered voters.
© 1999, Richmond Newspapers Inc.
Phil
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> Board set to kill GOP
Sounds like something you'd fantasize about.