Dear George:

There has been a great deal of concern about what the rules will be for the selection of our Senatorial nominee. I have sent to George, and I understand that he will post, our Call to Convention and Temporary Rules. This document is not just a draft being submitted for comment to a wider audience, as we have done with some other efforts at drafting rules; the Rules are subject to being amended at the Convention itself, as are any Temporary Rules. However, the Rules must track the Call to Convention, and therefore cannot differ substantially from what we have drafted. The Call and Rules were approved by the 25th Senatorial District Democratic Committee on Saturday, October 27. I have also sent to George a copy of my unofficial notes from that meeting.

The principal points to the Rules are these:

1. There are votes, and there are Convention Votes. Convention Votes are like delegates, if we had delegates. There will be 100 Convention Votes, divided among the cities and counties based on their populations. Charlottesville gets 25 votes, Albemarle 39, Nelson 8, Alleghany 10, and the rest are scattered around in smaller numbers.

2. After hearing from the candidates and their nominators and seconders, the Convention will break into caucuses by city or county. To use Charlottesville as an example, we will have our own caucus. If we have 100 people there, all 100 will cast a secret ballot vote for the one candidate of their choice. Those ballots will be counted, and the raw numbers will be reported out. Charlottesville's 25 Convention Votes will be apportioned based on the raw vote; if Thomas Jefferson were a candidate and got 40 votes, that would translate into 10 Convention Votes (40% of 25). If Dolley Madison got 30 votes, that would translate into 7 Convention Votes (30% of 25, rounded down). Et cetera. If rounding down results in having one or more Convention Votes left unapportioned, the candidate who had the largest remainder would receive that extra Convention Vote, etc., until all Convention Votes were apportioned. This is almost exactly the way that we did it in February, 2000, for City Council.

3. The nominee must receive greater than 50% of the vote to win. If after the first ballot no one has 50%+, there will be a second round of caucuses and balloting. The low person will be dropped, as will be anyone who does not receive at least 15% of the Convention Vote. I will recommend to Will Harvey, who will be the Chair, that after the results of each round are announced, there be some opportunity (a few minutes, anyway), for candidates to think about whether they wish to continue, whether they wish to urge their supporters to switch to another candidate, etc. I would hope that the caucusing and balloting would go quickly, but not hurriedly.

4. This format has the potential to make for a true convention, where the results are not pre-ordained. This is as politics had been conducted in this country for many years, until the 1970's, when conventions became scripted.

5. If we have 5 or 6 candidates, I would expect 3 rounds of balloting. If you have questions, please ask them of me after November 6. I continue to be distressed at the amount of energy that people are spending on this when they should be calling favorable voters.

Lloyd Snook (electronic mail, October 31, 2001).