Republicans Offer NoVA Voters 4 Sites For Nominating Convention

VIRGINIA — The Republican Party of Virginia’s process for nominating statewide candidates continues to stir controversy, with claims of potential delegate application fraud and a rigged nominating convention.

Similar to Republican lawmakers across the country seeking to add voting restrictions to general elections, the Republican Party of Virginia turned participation in the nominating process for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general into a cumbersome process.

People who wanted to participate in the process had to register as delegates with their local Republican Party unit. On May 8, when the "unassembled convention" takes place, participation will require traveling to a limited number of voting sites. And the party said it could take up to a week after the convention to count the votes and name the winners.

For all of Northern Virginia, the Republican Party is offering voters four sites to participate in the convention: the Prince William County Fairgrounds in Manassas; the National Right to Work office building on Braddock Road in Springfield; the Annandale campus of NOVA Community College on Little River Turnpike; and the 10th District Republican Headquarters in Ashburn.

"The convention is about disenfranchising as many voters as possible, which seems to be the GOP way lately," former Virginia Republican Congressman Denver Riggleman told NPR.

Virginia allows political parties to choose between having a party-run convention or a state-run primary. Democrats opted for the primary.

The Democratic Party is holding its primary on June 8 where people can go to their neighborhood precincts to cast a ballot for candidates for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and House of Delegate. Early voting in the Democratic primary started last week, 45 days before the primary date.

Throughout the Republican nominating process, state Sen. Amanda Chase, who is running for governor, has been accusing the Republican Party “establishment” of trying to sabotage her candidacy.

“The Party hacks have repeatedly changed the process, tried to throw out my delegates, lied to my supporters, and blatantly ignored their own conflict of interest provisions to try and thwart my campaign,” Chase, who said people have described her as “Trump in heels,” wrote last week in an email to supporters. “Unfortunately for them I CANNOT BE STOPPED!”

Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, told NPR that the “pieces and factions of this state party are simply reflecting the kind of paranoia we're seeing from the Trump national party."

For the May 8 convention, the Republican Party decided to accept applications to participate as a delegate that lacked a voter identification number or a signature, NBC News reported.

“How on earth do you accept an application that's not signed?” Clara Belle Wheeler, chair of the Virginia Republican Party's credentials committee asked during an April 11 meeting of the committee, according to an audio recording obtained by NBC News.

“We're all yelling about what Democrats are not requiring to happen and we're doing the same thing here. It's crazy,” said Jill Cook, the secretary of the Virginia GOP.

When the 53,000 registered delegates show up at their convention sites, though, photo IDs will be required. But NBC News reported that some campaigns have expressed concern about the integrity of the convention, even if every voter produces an ID.

"DO NOT TRUST THE PARTY TO DELIVER ACCURATE RESULTS,” Chase wrote in a fundraising email to supporters. “Who should you go to for the proper results? Me and my campaign! My campaign will be monitoring the voting and data entry on election night. If they are accurate, we will tell you. If they are not, I will be prepared to sue in court to force a public count.”

The seven Republican candidates for governor are Chase, state Del. Kirk Cox, Peter Doran, Octavia Johnson, Pete Snyder, Glenn Youngkin and Sergio de la Pena.

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