The West Virginia Rules

Although West Virginia has been a backwater in the presidential nominating process over the last generation, Republicans in Mountaineer Country are thinking outside the box about how to gain attention for their state and their party. They have scheduled a state convention for the morning of Super-Duper Tuesday Feb. 5 and, to add to the importance of their early-reporting event, have made it winner-take-all for a prize of 18 national convention delegates. Up to 1,447 delegates are to attend the state convention in Charleston, a mixture of party and elected officials and grass-roots Republicans elected either through online voting in early January or by county conventions. At the state convention, their preferences are expected to be tallied in a roll-call vote by counties. If no candidate wins a majority of those delegates present and voting on the first ballot, the top three candidates will go on to a second ballot, and the top two to a third ballot, if one is required.

In order to compete at the state convention, candidates had to pay the West Virginia Republican Party a $5,000 filing fee by Sept. 1, 2007. Ten candidates did so. Nine other Republican delegates are to be elected on a district winner-take-all basis in the May 13 primary, along with all the pledged Democratic delegates.

Participation in both the Democratic and Republican primaries is open to independents as well as registered voters in each party. As of November 2006, there were 1,137,371 registered voters in West Virginia—648,889 Democrats, 342,970 Republicans, 133,555 independents, and 11,957 other voters.