Democrats were worried that Republican voters might influence the outcome of party primaries this week. But those fears were unfounded.
In some primary elections this week, Republicans were actively trying to get their voters to influence the outcome of Democratic primaries. But all the candidates in Democratic primaries with Republican support lost.
Former Republican Delegate David Ramadan is now at George Mason University's Schar School, and he says it was a half-baked strategy.
"That was a very stupid move," Ramadan says. "It never worked in the past. It's not going to work in the future, and it brings me back always to the point of, we should have party registration in Virginia. Party registration solves all these gimmicks."
But forcing voters to register by party is an idea that’s been rejected by the General Assembly dozens of times in recent decades. J. Miles Coleman at the University of Virginia says a lot of voters like the open primary system.
"You talk to some independent or unaffiliated in other states, 'Oh yeah. I just vote in whatever primary is more interesting,' right? So, you've seen a lot of that mentality in Virginia because we have these open primaries," Coleman says.
In recent years, all the bills to force party registration were introduced by Republicans. They were rejected when Democrats controlled the General Assembly and also when Republicans controlled it.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
