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cali

(114,904 posts)
Mon Jun 23, 2014, 02:15 PM Jun 2014

Is it illegal in Miss. to vote for a candidate in the primary that you don't intend to support

in the general?

<snip>

But this second push to control the electorate is more dramatic than the Times lets on. The paper quotes Senate Conservatives Fund President Ken Cuccinelli in saying, accurately, that voters who drew a Democratic ballot three weeks ago can't vote in the Republican primary tomorrow. True. But Adams, quoted in the Times piece, told Breibart.com's embedded reporter Matt Boyle that it would be illegal for a voter who intended to vote against the winner of the GOP primary to cast a ballot at all.

The Mississippi law Adams cites, MS Code 23-15-575, states: “No person shall be eligible to participate in any primary election unless he intends to support the nominations made in which he participates.”

Mississippi law prohibits Democrats from voting in a Republican primary,” Adams said in an emailed statement. “Obviously poll workers aren’t mind readers. But if someone doesn’t intend to support the nominee in November, then that person isn’t allowed to vote in the Republican primary.”

Indeed, that's what the code says. That argument, which hasn't been reported much outside of conservative media, is getting better known within it. Yesterday, independent conservative reporter Charles Johnson scooped a robocall directed at black voters, telling them to vote against "Tea Party candidate Chris McDaniel" and thereby do a solid for President Obama. "It is illegal," explained Johnson, "to encourage someone to vote for someone in the primary who they do not intend to vote for in the general."

Given that more than 90 percent of Mississippi's black voters usually vote Democratic, poll-watchers have an easy way of spotting interlopers. Hey, you, picking up the Republican ballot! Do you plan to vote for the winner of the Republican primary.

UPDATE: Rick Hasen has more, including the recent legal decisions that weaken Adams' argument.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2014/06/23/how_will_poll_watchers_in_mississippi_spot_the_black_democrats_voting_in.html




6 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Is it illegal in Miss. to vote for a candidate in the primary that you don't intend to support (Original Post) cali Jun 2014 OP
I see a flaw in the wording. Erich Bloodaxe BSN Jun 2014 #1
No KamaAina Jun 2014 #2
I doubt that is true. HooptieWagon Jun 2014 #3
our democracy is a complete and utter joke if this is constitutional unblock Jun 2014 #4
And it's illegal to paint a horse in Vermont Rstrstx Jun 2014 #5
How would they prove who a primary voter "does not intend to support in the fall"? n/t. Ken Burch Jun 2014 #6

Erich Bloodaxe BSN

(14,733 posts)
1. I see a flaw in the wording.
Mon Jun 23, 2014, 02:36 PM
Jun 2014
No person shall be eligible to participate in any primary election unless he intends to support the nominations made in which he participates.


'support'. It doesn't say 'vote for'. I can 'support' having a choice of two decent candidates in the general, as opposed to one decent one and one idiot, without intending to actually vote for one of them.
 

HooptieWagon

(17,064 posts)
3. I doubt that is true.
Mon Jun 23, 2014, 02:37 PM
Jun 2014

There is no law stipulating who you vote for in the GE. Voters vross party lines in GE all the time.
As I understand, in Miss. you can chose which primary you vote in. In this case of a primary runoff, you can't vote in the GOP runoff if you voted in the Dem primary. However, you can vote in the runoff if you voted in the GOP primary, or if you didn't vote in either primary.
No matter how you vote in the primary, your vote in the GE isn't restricted. Sounds like somebody is spreading fear tactics.

unblock

(52,215 posts)
4. our democracy is a complete and utter joke if this is constitutional
Mon Jun 23, 2014, 02:51 PM
Jun 2014

which it isn't, of course.

as stated, this means that if hitler is running in the primary, i can't vote for gandhi unless i fully intend to support hitler in the event that i am outvoted.

obviously, any law that attempts to peer into the minds of voters at the ballot box and criminalize certain intentions is flagrantly inconsistent with a remotely functioning democracy.

Rstrstx

(1,399 posts)
5. And it's illegal to paint a horse in Vermont
Mon Jun 23, 2014, 03:11 PM
Jun 2014

Good luck trying to charge someone yet alone getting the law to survive a Constitutional challenge.

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