Hard Core Republicans for Clinton
It really doesn't make sense for election officials to allow party crossover voting in primaries. Perhaps in a perfect world where nobody "cheated" by voting strategically for the candidate they'd most like to oppose in the other party, then increased primary turnout might have a positive effect on a party's chances in the general election. Maybe. But I suspect the practice of allowing crossover voting has its origins in some sort of fuzzy feel-good politics of inclusion with little attention to its practical ramifications. It's an anachronistic practice that should be stopped.
Take Indiana. Republicans appear to be turning out in droves to vote in the Democratic primary today: one must suspect that many of them are voting for Clinton so as either 1) to have her as the Democratic nominee (knowing she's a weaker general election candidate), or 2) to keep the Democratic primary season going longer than it otherwise would in order to inflict maximum, pre-campaign damage on Obama, assuming he's the nominee. I'm not sure whether there's an official record of how many crossover ballots are issued, but if exit polls show that their number is greater than Clinton's margin of victory, the responsible way for reporters to report the result would be to say it's uncertain who Indiana Democratic voters prefer. And the responsible thing for party elders to do would be to (silently, or explicitly but discretely) ignore the results.
It's quite possible that she'll win regardless, but the size of her victory would nevertheless remain in question.
Posted by George Kenney on May 6, 2008 3:54 PM 
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Comments
In the 2000 election, I voted for McCain in the Virginia primary, which now makes me shudder. My rationale was that a Republican would win anyway in Virginia, and I was impressed (duped?) by McCain's anti-lobby talk. If McCain were truly a moderate, a reformer, and a non-warmonger, this would have been a sound decision. My point is that crossing-over can do good too, when it improves a party dominated by a reactionary base. This is especially important when that party is likely to win anyway, for whatever reasons.
Posted by: benjamin777
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May 10, 2008 2:50 PM