Republicans will chose governor candidate Saturday, tally will take days to complete
(The Center Square) – Republican delegates will choose their 2021 candidate for governor of Virginia on Saturday through a convention process, but results will take a few days to tally.
In the May 8 convention, delegates will choose their preferred candidates in a ranked voting system. Delegates can rank each of the seven candidates according to their order of preference. If none of the candidates pass 50% in the first tally, the last place candidate will be eliminated and those delegates’ votes will go to the second ranked candidate on their ballots. This process will repeat until one candidate surpasses 50%.
More than 53,000 Virginians have registered to be delegates for this year’s convention. Per the Republican Party of Virginia rules, all registered Republicans were eligible to register themselves as delegates, but not every vote will count equally. The state is broken into separate voting units, each of which has a set number of delegate votes. If a unit has more delegates than delegate votes, each ballot will count as a partial vote and if a unit has fewer delegates than delegate votes, each ballot will count as greater than one vote. For example, if a voting unit has five delegate votes and 10 delegates, each ballot will count as a half of a delegate vote.
The Republican Party of Virginia opted against a primary process, which means polling may not be representative of how delegates will vote. The lack of a primary, along with the ranked voting system, makes it difficult to determine a favorite for the convention.
All votes will be hand counted starting Sunday and the process is expected to take three or four days to complete. To ensure the security of the election, the completed ballots will be in a room under constant video surveillance guarded by off-duty officers.
Delegates must cast their ballots in-person at one of 39 polling locations between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Saturday. The party will only allow for early voting if the Saturday convention conflicts with religious observance, an exception that was made to ensure Orthodox Jews could cast votes without conflicting with their Shabbat rules. Those early votes can be cast Friday between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m.
A variety of Republican candidates are vying for the nomination, including current lawmakers and businessmen. Former House Speaker and current Del. Kirk Cox, R-Colonial Heights, and Sen. Amanda Chase, R-Chesterfield are on the ballot, as are businessmen Pete Snyder and Glenn Younkin. Other candidates include Sergio de la Pena, the former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense under former President Donald Trump, former think tank leader Peter Doran and former Roanoke Sheriff Octavia Johnson.
Republican convention delegates will also choose the Republican nominees for lieutenant governor and attorney general on convention day through the same process.
The Democratic nominee will be decided through a June 8 primary. The candidates include former Gov. Terry McAullife and current Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, among others.
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