'Super snooze day:' Lynchburg expert weighs in on Super Tuesday

LYNCHBURG, Va. (WSET) — With Super Tuesday fast approaching, ABC13 asked University of Lynchburg Political Expert Dr. Dave Richards why it matters.

Dr. Richards said it is important for the primary calendar.

"It is important in the primary calendar, you know more than a dozen states going at the same time, using primary systems and some are doing caucuses. There are about 800 delegates up for grabs in the Republican and about that many in the Democratic side," Dr. Richards said.

By the end of the week, there will be 21 states or territories that go with primaries or caucuses, according to Richards.

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"We will have a much clearer idea of who is going to win the nomination at the end of this week. In the case of the Republicans, if Nikki Haley cannot pull out some pretty major wins on Tuesday, then really it is all over for her mathematically, in terms of winning enough delegates for the convention," Richards said.

And at this point, Richards sees Trump as pulling through, with the Republican Nomination. Richards doesn't see Hayley as making a comeback.

"One of the things she(Hayley)is fighting, in Virginia for example, is the candidate that gets more than 50 percent of the vote, then gets all the delegates," Richards said.

Trump has been winning by more than 50%. Virginia will be having primaries.

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"For Virginia, we will have primaries. There is a state law that the parties must hold open primaries, that allow really anyone to come in and vote. You can only vote for one party," Richards said.

Early voting for Super Tuesday has been going on for many weeks and turnout has been low so far.

"That turnout has been very low, historically, compared to previous early voting," Richards said.

In-person voting can be done from Tuesday morning until the night in your precinct and polling place.

Richards expects Trump will win for the Republicans and Biden for the Democrats.

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However, doesn't see this as a distinguishing factor of who will win between the two.

"I don't think we can read a whole lot into what will happen in November, just because you have to vote just for one party and you're voting amongst the candidates in that party," Richards said.

But overall Richards thinks Super Tuesday won't give many answers.

"I've been calling the Tuesday primaries super snooze day because really it's just kind of not going to tell us a whole lot. I expect turnout to be relatively low, across the entire country, but especially in Virginia. So, it will be really difficult to take anything away from this, except the expected outcome, which we will see Biden and Trump be the nominees in November," Richards said.