Voters must choose primary participation
Published 5:00 am Friday, July 20, 2007
A lawsuit that could affect future Mississippi elections willhave no effect on party primaries in August, election officialssay.
“I’ve had some calls on that. We need to stress that nothing haschanged this year,” said Helen Funk, Lincoln County Democraticexecutive committee chairwoman.
The confusion stems from a recent judge’s ruling following alawsuit by the Democratic Party claiming they had the right tolimit participation in their primary elections to Democrats.Democrats claimed Republicans were voting in their primaries anddiluting the strength of their candidates by selecting thecandidate most palatable to the opposing party.
In his ruling, U.S. District Judge W. Allen Pepper Jr., ofCleveland, ruled that the state must re-register its citizens tovote as either Democrat, Republican or unaffiliated. The judge alsoordered the state to establish a voter identification system.
On Tuesday, the judge extended the timetable in which the statehad to enact the mandate. The new system must be in place by Aug.31, 2008, rather than next month.
The extension allows state officials to leave the primaries forthe Aug. 7 party primaries for statewide, regional and countyoffices and the March 11, 2008, primary for federal officesunchanged.
As such, voters on Aug. 7 will have to choose to eitherparticipate in the Democratic primary or the Republican primary.The Republican primary features a House District 92 representativerace and few contested state races, while the Democratic primaryincludes many contested county races like sheriff andsupervisors.
“It should not affect any election until we are required tore-register. It won’t affect this election at all,” said ChuckNelms, Lincoln County Republican executive committee chairman,about Pepper’s ruling.
The re-registration by party or as unaffiliated is unlikely tochange citizens’ voting habits, Nelms said, because voters havealways had to choose whether to vote in the Democratic orRepublican primary. It’s not until the general election in Novemberthat voters can choose a candidate in either party.
“This doesn’t change that,” he said. “You’ll still have to makea choice in the primary.”
The lawsuit was the result of a belief by some Democrats thatcitizens who were intending to vote Republican in the generalelection would vote Democrat in the primaries, Funk said.
Most county candidates qualify as Democrats, and by voting inthe Democrat primaries, citizens could support county candidates oftheir choosing. However, it also gave them an opportunity to votefor candidates for other offices that they believed had less of achance of victory in regional and state races against theRepublican candidate they favored, Funk said.
Nelms said he believed there was very little cross-voting byRepublicans.
“I’ve felt all along if you wanted to vote in the Democrat orRepublican primary you were voting for a candidate you wanted tosupport and would vote down the ticket,” Nelms said. “I don’t knowof anyone who goes to the polls to vote against somebody.”