March 30, 2006

West Virginia's 2008 GOP E-Primary

Attention Republican presidential candidates: add West Virginia to the calendar of early primary states for 2008 -- be prepared to start campaigning there early. State Republicans will select their 18 at-large delegates by participating in a multi-step process that begins in June of 2007 and ends in May of 2008. Most of the voting takes place online. In all likelihood, it'll vastly enhance West Virginia's role in the presidential nominating process for Republicans.

"They're going to have to get in there and get local people to tart supporting it," says state GOP chair Robin Capehart.

Beginning in Sept. of '07, Republicans will sign up online and receive from the state a username and password. (The names will be checked and rechecked and verified, Capehart said.) Then, between 11/1 and 11/30 of '07, those GOPers who want to be delegates to their county conventions will register with the state party.

Prospective presidential candidates must file with the WV SoS office in Dec. of '07 and also file a slate of delegates. Between 1/1 and 1/14 of 2008, Republicans will log on to the state party website and enter into their names and passwords. There, they'll be presented with a ballot listing their county's convention delegate choices. Each county gets to send one delegate per 1,000 residents (and an extra delegate for every four if the county went for Bush in '04).

Repbublicans not online can vote in person. Capehart: "The rules allow for every county to have a one-day convention. In these rural counties, you would basically go to a designated place, and there would be computers set up. Or they can do it by paper ballots."

Aside from the delegates chosen by GOPers in counties, members of the county executive committees, the state legislators and other special designees automatically become delegates -- so the candidates will need to recruit them as well. On 2/5, the day the window to select delegates for the Republican National Convention opens, WV GOPers will choose the 18 delegates from the hundreds selected at the country level. The vote that day is winner-take all. In a majority isn't produced in the first round of balloting, the candidates with the three highest vote totals proceed to a second round; if a majority isn't produced during the second round, then the top two candidates face off. Whoever wins a majority will see his or her delegate slate certified by the state party.

According to the rules: "National Delegates designated as At-Large shall be elected at the State Presidential Convention by a roll call vote of the counties by reference to the Presidential Candidate." That means that potential presidential candidates need to get started early. In order to have a chance to win, they need to convince potential county-level delegates to identify with their candidacy by November 30. (The county-level delegates don't have to be "McCain" delegates or "Romney" delegates, but if they are, voters will be able to choose them as McCain delegates or Romney delegates.) BTW: The state will select nine additional congressional district delegates (three per CD) in May. Once again, the presidential candidates will have to submit a slate of delegates to the Secretary of State in order to win them.

Capehart said he has consulted with internet security experts and has run his plan by the Republican National Committee. He said there are safeguards in place to protect against tampering and system failure.

Who has an edge in West Virginia? Sen. George Allen (R-VA) has neighboring state appeal, but Capehart said WV is "so regionalized" that outside the counties that border Virginia, it's an open field. Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), he said, is popular in West Virginia's panhandle (it's in the Pittsburgh, PA market). And Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is, to Capehart's recollection, the only potential candidate who has visited the state in recent years. [MARC AMBINDER]

Posted at 12:02 PM

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