10/17/12: The election tonight

This op-ed appeared in The Virginian-Pilot on the date shown.

THERE ARE more than 42,000 registered voters in the 89th House of Delegates district. Tonight, a few hundred could decide who should represent them all.

What? You didn’t realize there is an election tonight? Well, technically, there isn’t. But for all practical purposes, there is.

On Sept. 28, Gov. Bob Mc-Donnell set Dec. 18 as the date for the special election to fill the seat vacated by Del. Kenny Alexander upon his election to fill the remaining term of the late Sen. Yvonne Miller.

Virginia Code section 24.2-507 provides the timetable for candidates to file declarations and petitions of candidacy. For this type of special election, candidates have to file at least 60 days before the election. The deadline, as included in the press release, is Oct. 19.

Of course, elections to the General Assembly are partisan affairs. Parties get to nominate, in some fashion, their own candidates. But the nominee has to be certified to the State Board of Elections at least 60 days before the election; again, this is Oct. 19.

The short time frame — Sept. 28 to Oct. 19 — makes a primary, which is administered by the State Board, impossible. In its stead, the parties often choose what is commonly referred to as a “firehouse primary.” The party sets the voting location or locations, and the voting hours. Voters arrive, cast their secret ballots during the announced hours, and then leave.

The 89th District lies completely within the city of Norfolk . According to the Virginia Public Access Project, the district is a majority minority one, with 59 percent of its population African American and 35 percent white. It also is heavily Democratic. VPAP reports that Gov. Bob McDonnell earned just 28 percent of the vote here in 2009, a full 30 percentage points lower than his margin statewide.

Republicans have no plans to field a candidate in the 89th. In fact, the last time they did, in 2005, when the district was slightly more white and Republican, the candidate received about 23 percent of the vote.

So today Democrats are holding a firehouse primary, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Masonic Temple, 7001 Granby St. Only two candidates qualified for the contest, which included a $2,500 filing fee: former Norfolk Vice Mayor Daun Hester and banker Yvonne Allmond. A third candidate failed to meet last Sunday’s 5 p.m. filing deadline. Unless someone else files by Friday, the winner of tonight’s vote will be the delegate for the 89th until November 2013.

There’s just so much wrong with holding an election with so little notice. There’s just so much wrong with allowing voters only three hours to cast ballots. There’s just so much wrong with the sole polling location being at one end of the district. And there’s just so much wrong with holding the vote on a Wednesday night, the night for midweek services in churches everywhere.

This isn’t democracy, it’s a coronation.

If there is a silver lining, it lies in the fact that any registered voter residing in the 89th can vote in a firehouse primary. Remember, we don’t register by party in Virginia. Yes, there will probably be a piece of paper for you to sign saying that you agree to support the nominee in the general election, but given that there likely won’t be another name on the ballot come Dec. 18, that shouldn’t be a problem. Besides, how is anyone to know whether you did or not? We have a secret ballot, after all.

I urge all the voters in the 89th to show up tonight and let their voices be heard by casting their ballots for who they believe will best represent them.

Don’t let the few decide who your representative will be.