Two bills have been introduced in the Virginia legislature to alter the voter registration form, so that applicants would be given an opportunity to choose a party, or independent status, on the form. Delegate Scott Lingamfelter (R-Woodbridge) has introduced HB 31, and Delegate Mark Cole (R-Fredericksburg) has introduced HB 55.
The difference between the two bills is that the Cole bill merely provides that the voter registration form should ask voters about partisan affiliation. The Lingamfelter bill does that, but also gives parties the authority to decide which voters could participate in that party’s primaries.
Neither bill has any provision for voters to register into an unqualified party, even though courts in Iowa, New York, New Jersey, Oklahoma, and Colorado, have ruled that in states that allow voters to register into parties, voters must be given the opportunity to register as members of unqualified parties that are active in elections.
They might as well have dropped the charade and called them the “No More Robert Sarvises” Bill A and Bill B. If either one stood, there’d certainly be less people joining and voting for third parties like the Libertarians.