Jeff Even writes:

With regard to Professor Hasan's report and question,
repeated below, I have
to ask whether these "cross-over votes" are "Republicans"
who choose to vote
as Democrats in the primary (that is, who vote consistently
on the
Democratic ballot), or people who cross over and try to vote
for a Democrat
while participating as a Republican as to other races.  The
difference would
seem to be crucial, since the latter activity would
presumably result in the
invalidation of their ballots.  The former, on the other
hand, would give
rise to the question of whether Justice Scalia's opinion
actually means that
the closed primary is the only permissible way to use a
primary to select
party nominees.


Jeff Even
Assistant Attorney General
Solicitor General's Team
PO Box 40100
Olympia, WA 98504-0100
voice: (360) 586-0728
fax: (360) 664-2963
jeffe@atg.wa.gov

Professor Hasan writes:

I have heard anecdotal reports of friends from Georgia that
there has
been a lot of cross-over voting in the Georgia primary in
the primary
race between Cynthia McKinney and Denise Majette.  (This
race has
received a great deal of national coverage because of the
role that
Middle East politics has played in the race---supporters of
Israel have
been opposing McKinney.)  According to one friend who voted
this
morning, just about everyone in his district was voting in
the
Democratic primary (even though his district contains a fair
number of
Republicans).

One wonders what Justice Scalia would make of this
"infringement" on the
right of the Democratic Party to choose its own nominee,
despite his
statement in CDP v. Jones that the question of the
constitutionality of
the open primary imposed against the wishes of a party was
not at issue
there.