[EL] Legality of Primary Raiding?

Sun Feb 9 06:30:28 PST 2020

The Virginia GOP was concerned about protecting its 2016 presidential primary. We do not register by party in Virginia, so the primaries are necessarily open.  The Virginia GOP eventually abandoned its attempt to install a party loyalty pledge.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/virginia-gop-drops-plan-for-loyalty-pledge-but-maybe-too-late-for-primary/2016/01/30/2c65d7a8-c799-11e5-a4aa-f25866ba0dc6_story.html

-Hank

Henry L. Chambers, Jr.
Austin E. Owen Research Scholar and Professor of Law
University of Richmond School of Law
203 Richmond Way
Richmond, Va. 23173
(804) 289-8199
hchamber at richmond.edu

From: Law-election <law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu> On Behalf Of David Segal
Sent: Sunday, February 9, 2020 3:25 AM
To: weichpm <weichpm at earthlink.net>
Cc: Election Law Listserv <law-election at uci.edu>
Subject: Re: [EL] Legality of Primary Raiding?

I'm sure it's operated in other races since, at least at state level, but this is a resurrection of tactics I think were most prominently deployed in '88, meant to sow confusion and resentment more than to tip a race.

https://www.nytimes.com/1988/03/31/us/chance-for-gop-mischief-in-wisconsin-vote-arises.html

Another effect that is probably operating right now, because there is no meaningfully R primary, is that there'll probably be a substantial organic presence of Rs/R-leaning independents in the D open primaries this cycle.

Post-2016 the left substantially concluded that open primaries are good for progressive candidates, since Bernie did better in such primaries.
But last cycle Rs/R-leaning independents tended to vote in R primaries in open states. On average, even if there are a few Rs/R-leaners who try to disrupt the D primary by voting for the person they think is least electable in a general, my supposition would be that on the whole there will be more relative conservatives voting in D open primaries who are earnestly voting for the candidate they actually like best. So it could augment the electorate in a way that hurts the left.

Has anybody studied this? I know that some Dean people blame this effect for having helped undermine his candidacy in 2004.

On Sat, Feb 8, 2020 at 6:55 PM weichpm <weichpm at earthlink.net<mailto:weichpm at earthlink.net>> wrote:
Yale, can you please provide us with a cute or to?

Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone

-------- Original message --------
From: Yael Bromberg <Yael.Bromberg at law.georgetown.edu<mailto:Yael.Bromberg at law.georgetown.edu>>
Date: 2/8/20 4:48 PM (GMT-07:00)
To: Election Law Listserv <law-election at uci.edu<mailto:law-election at uci.edu>>
Subject: [EL] Legality of Primary Raiding?

Good evening,

I saw reports today that members of one party are being openly encouraged to raid an open primary held by another party in an effort to skew results.

My question is: Is this legal? I have not studied this particular issue closely, but it rings of a violation of the associational rights of the party holding the primary, and practically it sounds like a form of fraud. Are citizen oaths required before engaging in open primaries?

____________________________

This transmission is intended by the sender and proper recipient(s) to be confidential, intended only for the proper recipient(s) and may contain information that is privileged, attorney work product or exempt from disclosure under applicable law.  If you are not the intended recipient(s) you are notified that the dissemination, distribution or copying of this message is strictly prohibited.  If you receive this message in error, or are not the proper recipient(s), please notify the sender at either the email address or telephone number above and delete this email from your computer. Receipt by anyone other than the proper recipient(s) is not a waiver of any attorney-client, work product, or other applicable privilege.  Thank you.

Unless expressly stated to the contrary herein, (a) Nothing contained in this message was intended or written to be used, can be used, nor may be relied upon or used, by any taxpayer for the purpose of avoiding penalties that could be imposed upon the taxpayer under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended; and (b) Any written statement contained herein relating to any federal tax transaction or issue may not be used by any individual or entity to recommend or support the promotion or marketing of any such transaction or issue.
_______________________________________________
Law-election mailing list
Law-election at department-lists.uci.edu<mailto:Law-election at department-lists.uci.edu>
https://department-lists.uci.edu/mailman/listinfo/law-election
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20200209/fe444532/attachment.html>