[Black Agnes]

Ok. Briefly.

In MS we have open primaries. You can vote in either one regardless of whether you are registered to that particular party or not.

On primary day you MUST CHOOSE which primary you want to vote in. You choose a table, either Republican or Democrat, when you enter your precinct. They check your ID, check to make sure you are registered and you sign a book. They then give you a voting card for the voting machines. Once there, you insert the card you got and ONLY the candidates in THAT primary appear on the screen. You select your choice(s), cast your ballot, eject the card, return it to the appropriate table and go home.

You can NOT then turn around and vote at the OTHER table. You have ALREADY VOTED. You can NOT vote TWICE.

Now, IF one of the parties has a run off, you can of course vote in that as well. You can NOT vote in the primary runoff of the party that you did NOT vote in on the original primary election day.

If you DO so you have in effect voted TWICE. This is ILLEGAL.

In the run off they will take the registration book from the OPPOSITE party’s primary and use THAT to determine if you have already voted in the OTHER party’s primary and are therefore INeligible to vote in the runoff. It was THIS practice that GOP bigs supposedly told the precinct workers in majority dem precincts to avoid. They then had no way to determine who was eligible to vote and who wasn’t, easily.

If you voted in the democrat primary, and there is documented evidence of this when you registered at that particular table, and your name/ID were subsequently used to vote at the OTHER primary runoff you have broken the law.

The RACE baiting the other party’s supporters is another topic altogether. Not illegal in open primary states, but tends to paint the incumbent into a corner they won’t get out of. They aren’t going to get the primary opponent’s supporters votes and the opposing party’s supporters are unlikely to vote outside their party in the general election.

Hope this makes sense.

[bigbob]

Excellent explanation, thanks for taking the time.

[TigerClaws]

Good summary.

Here’s a blog (not mine) that a friend referred me to:

http://cottonmouthblog.blogspot.com/

Some interesting info in there (the black pastor worked on a previous campaign for a Republican) and a bit of skepticism about that pastor’s story.

I think McDaniel should proceed cautiously with the vote buying allegations. People who will tell stories for cash will tell ANY story.

But the crossover votes are CLEARLY illegal and can be shown easily. There’s enough there already to order a statewide check.

[DisorderOnBorder]

Thorough explanation of the rules, thanks

[Ronin]

Excellent! Thank you for the explanation. That clarified things perfectly. Looks like we have them by the short and curlies now.

[VF-51vnv]

So much for open primaries in MS. Here in La. Triple verifications....state sent voter registration card and ID number...drivers license for name/address verification and must initial voter registration roll BEFORE voting. Yes it's a pain, but it keeps it honest here in Mandeville, La.