Crossover Votes and Primaries

Last week, I voted in the Ohio primary. And even though the Republican nominee had been pretty much decided (and was, by the end of the day), I voted for Mike Huckabee (surprise, surprise).

My wife works at our local polling place, and she told me that she thought there were a number of Republican voters who crossed over and voted in the Democratic primary with the intention to support a candidate that they felt would be easy to beat in November.

I've always wondered about that possibility in primaries, especially in states that hold open primaries. Even in Ohio, all you have to do is sign a pledge to support your new party, and you're in. I could have voted in the Democratic primary last week -- though my wife would certainly have questioned it, and I'd have gotten in trouble. I've always thought that the primary process in this country was broken (if not the whole electoral college process, but that's another post).

Now come reports that there were folks in Ohio who changed party allegiance and were somewhat less than truthful -- even going so far as to amend the oath that they signed. And I have a problem with that, from a Christian standpoint.

Yes, elections are a secular construct, with little religious significance. But our lives are to be lived in ways that are pleasing to God -- and He's the one who said "Let your 'Yes' mean 'Yes' and your 'No' mean 'No' after all. I agree with the idea that "our nominating process is messed up." I disagree with the notion that just because the other side is doing it, we can do it, too.

the Democrats try to influence our primaries (I was really ticked off when McCain made an appeal to Democrats and Independents to vote for him in the SC primary in 2000) and now we are returning the favor.

No. We're told to return good for evil, and not to repay in kind. While I disagree witht he idea of holding the electoral system in some kind of reverence, I do agree with Lars Walker, who said

The fact that there are cynical people out there who game the system doesn't justify us, the people who say we believe in moral absolutes, in pretending to belong to a different party so we can sabotage its nomination process.

Posted by Warren Kelly at March 9, 2008 12:44 PM | TrackBack