The following is the opening paragraph from a column written by the Washington Post Editorial Board dated May 20, 2013.
More than a quarter of Virginia’s electorate considers itself Republican, which translates to almost 1 million voters. Of that number, about 8,000 — less than 1 percent — showed up at the party’s convention in Richmond over the weekend to choose the GOP candidates in this November’s races for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general.
As I have written before, most states have the conventional open and closed primary systems are used. In each case, a nominee is chosen by the public for each party. In open states, party affiliation is not a prerequisite for voting in either party’s primary. In closed primary states, you can only vote in the party primary under the label you are registered.
Why then would a state want to have a convention, which is more “closed” than a closed primary?
For more information about the Virginia Republican Party Convention, read this Washington Post column.
Politics Matters 