Unlike the election of the president and vice president, Virginia's constitution requires that the governor and lieutenant governor run separately. With the election less than a week away and with this rule in mind some Virginians wonder about the possibility of a split ticket election result.
The last such occurrence of a split election was in 1993, when Democrat Don Beyer was elected lieutenant governor and Republican George Allen was elected governor.
Larry J. Sabato, professor of government and foreign affairs at the University, such occurrences have been rare historically.
"A strong gubernatorial candidate tends to generate coattails for the other members of his party," Sabato said. "He excites his party and inspires more of his supporters to turn out and vote."
Sabato noted that four out of the last five elections have yielded straight ticket results.
Before 1993, the last split ticket election was in 1977.
Sabato also noted that even the weakest member of the governor-elect's party tends to do better than expected.
In this case, should Democratic candidate Mark Warner be elected governor, Donald McEachin, the Democratic candidate for attorney general, can hope to draw positive results as well.
Some political analysts see the possible Democratic sweep as having greater implications for the political culture of the state than for the actual power held in the governor's office.
"If the Democrats win all three seats, that would be seen as a larger rejection of the Republicans' approach to government," said Scott Keeter, professor of public and international affairs at George Mason University.
Keeter emphasized that the office of lieutenant governor is an intrinsically weak position that holds little sway over the state political system.
"Whoever wins lieutenant governor will likely be his party's next nominee for governor," Keeter said. "Otherwise, the position has very little power. When asked, a small minority of the public can even identify who the lieutenant governor is."
Keeter also emphasized that the legislature almost certainly will remain in Republican control, which means that, if elected, Warner will be faced with a healthy opposition.
According to a recent Washington Post poll, which shows that Warner holds a 10-point lead over Earley, if there is a split ticket some political pundits believe the most likely instance would involve the combination of Warner and Republican candidate for attorney general Jerry Kilgore.
While instances of split tickets have resulted in a lot of bad blood in the past, Sabato said that he doesn't foresee this being the case were Warner and Kilgore to be elected.
"Neither one of these men are the sort to cause trouble for the other one," Sabato said.
As of now, none of the candidates are preparing for a split ticket election.
"The real issue here is voter turnout," said Eric Lodal, Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor Tim Kaine's communications director. "It's an interesting year that no one has any experience with, but I suspect we will still see a straight party vote."
The Republicans agreed that the issue of a split-party vote is not being considered at this point.
"We'll cross that bridge if and when we come to it," said Ken Hutcheson, campaign manager for Kilgore. "In that event, Jerry Kilgore would do whatever he had to get the job done."
YooRee Oh, press spokeswoman for the Earley campaign, also said that Earley has not been preparing for a split ticket election.
In the final week before the election, all six candidates are scrambling to make one final push to draw voters to the polls Tuesday. Kaine is teaching a civics lesson in a seventh grade classroom in New Kent county this morning and both parties are joining their three candidates for statewide tours.
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