Are there cases in some states where ole-time Dems who always vote Republican can fuck up a Primary?

[mtnsnake]

For instance, I've heard that in some states, especially in some of the redder states, there are still huge numbers of older voters who are registered as Democrats, but they have been voting Republican for the last couple decades or more.

So, if the primary is a closed primary, where voters can only vote in the primary of the party that they're registered in, can there be enough of these registered "Democrats" (really Republicans now) that can screw up the results of a Democratic Primary in that state? And if so, is this why they refuse to register as Republicans? Or are they just ole-time Democrats who used to vote Democrat when they were young but never bothered re-registering as Repukes in later years just because they didn't want to bother? Just wondering.

[slick8790]

1. I think theoretically it could happen.

But I honestly don't think many former dem-current repub voters are that malicious that they'd try to do that.

[NoodleBoy]

2. people who are registered for one party but consistently vote for another rarely

vote in any primaries, and if they would their influence would be negligible.

[Raejeanowl]

28. That's Confusing

How can they be eligible to vote in the general if they haven't voted in the primary?

[NoodleBoy]

29. no one has to vote in a primary to vote in a general election.

And people who vote in a primary range from only around one-tenth to one-third of the people who vote in the general, depending on other circumstances.

But you don't have to vote in the primary to vote in the general.

[Marrah_G]

3. Err you think hordes of elderly folks are trying to rig the Dem primaries?

[Fed_Up_Grammy]

4. Don't understimate we elderly folks---we are more devious

than you think.

[smalll]

5. Wait until Hillary actually sews this whole thing up in early February -

we'll see a LOT more threads like this one. Maybe the OP here is just being proactive. :shrug: Heaven help us if she wins Iowa. I want her to win, but DU really needs at least a few weeks to get used to it. A Hill win in Iowa might be just too much, too soon.

If she DOES win Iowa, I exepect to hear about the supermagnets. Supermagnets are the perfect way to steal a caucus. Everyone has belt buckles. Or at least just about everyone in Iowa in the winter does, I should expect. Nice big fat ones.

[madrchsod]

11. can she sew a couple of buttons on my shirts?

hell i `ll vote for her if she does!

[annie1]

12. for a vote, she will learn.

[comradebillyboy]

6. well I am probably elderly by your standards

and the older I get, the more I see that my best interests lie with the democratic party. I hope you don't think us old farts are unworthy of belonging to your party, dear child.

[Marrah_G]

18. Perhaps I should have made it clear that I thought the idea was rediculous

[mtnsnake]

19. IOW, you don't know the answer to an honest question, so you answer just to hear yourself

[Marrah_G]

20. What?

I honestly have no idea what you are talking about

[madrchsod]

9. why of course we are!

you know we are a bit daft in the head....:rofl:

[calteacherguy]

7. Give it a rest, there is no conspiracy if your girl loses. nt

[mtnsnake]

14. I don't need any extra rest, teacher. OTOH, you seem to be losing tons of sleep lately

judging by all your threads showing you're worried to death over the Iowa thing and so uptight that you're already doing threads on third-party candidates you're gonna vote for if your idol loses.

Oh, I see one of your threads about voting third party already got locked. You naughty naughty teacher, you. lol

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=3911248&mesg_id=3911248

[madrchsod]

8. when i vote in a primary i have to declare a party

it`s sucked because there was a republican that was worth voting for but i could`t in the primary just the general election. this primary is a bit more complicated because of the special election in the illinois 14th.

[mtnsnake]

17. I checked for your state & I noticed it's not listed as open or closed, but "other"

It said something like you must vote in the same primary as the last primary vote, but that it's "loosely enforced".

[no name no slogan]

10. Wouldn't ole-time Dems who "always" vote Republican be considered Republicans?

[madrchsod]

13. i`m old and you are confusing me

i`m going to go lay down and take a nap

[no name no slogan]

15. Okay, bear with me

If a person's political party affiliation is determined by what party s/he votes for in an election, wouldn't a person who "always" votes Republican be considered a Republican?

Aw, screw it. I'm going to go find that video footage of Jimmy Carter thwacking that killer bunny rabbit that attacked his canoe.

[lastliberalintexas]

25. Not in states like Texas

Here we don't have to register with any party, we just vote in one of the party primaries. The only sticking point comes if there is a runoff in the repub primary- if you voted in the Dem primary you can't vote in the repub runoff, even if there is no Dem runoff. Or vice versa of course.

This leads to a great deal of cross party voting, though, at least in areas of the state where one party control exists at the local level. For example, SE Texas is Dem controlled locally, thus most people vote in the Dem primary since that usually decides county and regional races. However, that doesn't mean that those same people then vote straight Dem in November. There have actually been coordinated campaigns by the repubs in the past to attempt to pick the weaker of the Dems in the primary to help the repub in the general. The repubs in Texas did this in the 90s in our Dem primary between Mattox and Fisher- Fisher won because of the likely crossover vote and was then slaughtered by Kay My Daddy Used to Say Hutchison.


But I would imagine that any repub interfernce in the Dem primaries of 08 would be in favor of Clinton, not against- something I don't think the OP would like to hear.

[SheilaT]

16. Here in Kansas we have many

Democrats who are registered as Republicans specifically to vote in the primaries, because it's the Republican primaries that matter most in this state. I've spent years trying to convince those Democrats that they are wrong to do so, that their registration as Republicans further weakens the Democratic Party, and that they should be working actively for Democrats from the very beginning.

Keep in mind that there are states in which you don't register a party preference, although presumably you can only vote in one party's primary, and undoubtedly voters in those states sometimes vote in the Democratic primary and sometimes in the Republican one.

[mtnsnake]

22. Thank you, and also to the other couple of posters way upthread for helping clear it up for me

Yours is the kind of post that people can learn something interesting from, as opposed to the goofy ones who are trying to make this thread about Hillary in the dorkiest of fashion.

Thanks! :thumbsup:

[Snarkoleptic]

21. I used to be register as a repug in order to cast a primary ballot for..

whomever seemed the most clueless and out of touch.
Blew up in my face on * and I've since realized that irony abounds in the repug political process.

[mtnsnake]

24. Thank you, too. That's exactly one of the things I was wondering

[cynthia]

23. In Minnesota, you don't "register" as a member of any party

but when it comes time to vote in a primary, you get one ballot or the other, so "cross-over" voting is possible. I don't think it makes much of a difference in the big contests. In a smaller election (congress or state legislature) it might have an impact.

[mtnsnake]

26. So that would be an open primary, right?

where you can vote in whichever primary you choose, but only one primary, not both?

[cynthia]

27. Right,

you can't vote for more than one party in the primary, so you are committing to that party for the few minutes to cast your ballot. After that, you can align yourself with whatever party you want. And in the general, you can choose from all the parties anyway.