Will there be cross-over voting in the upcoming May 20 Preferential Primaries of the Democrat Party and Republican Party?
I seriously doubt it.
Not so long ago, it was a factor -- perhaps a fear factor, in Arkansas politics.
A fear that large numbers of Democrats would enter a close GOP Primary and skewer the votes, electing the less likely Republican candidate to win in November. And vice versa, large numbers of Republicans entering a close Democratic Primary to elect or "damage" a Democratic front runner for the fall General Election.
Cross-over voting, however, was never a true indicator of Democratic voters wanting to enter the Republican Party's primary or Republican voters entering the Democratic Primary to try to influence the other party's nominees emerging from an inter-party primary.
Pure candidate chicanery?
Absolute voter confusion?
Or how about pure political hokum?
Even with a "short" ballot for both parties on May 20 -- I cannot imagine what coffee shop talk begins to hyper-ventilate over just what could happen if significant members of each party were to cross over -- is just that -- hyper-speculation. When the local political rhetoric goes into a spring slump before the Labor Day sprint to the first Tuesday in November of a non-Presidential election year, those who like to "imagine" lots of scenarios that will never happen.
No longer to check a person's voting "history" do County Clerks have to leaf through monstrous bound books of hundreds and hundreds of pages to see where voters have cast their primary votes in the past. Click a few keys and your entire voting history, not only political, but school, city and most tax issues, quickly jumps onto the screen.
And most politicians can access these data bases, mining for the most liked GOP and Democratic voters in any given race in the past -- thus projecting the potential voters and their proclivity in the past to show up for a primary, special and general election.
Most voters, as true Arkansas "Independent spirits" as they may be, seem to pick a political party and stick with that party.
That is not to say that come November, when you do not have to choose which party to cast a ballot on behalf, that crossing over is not only easier -- it is virtually undetectable as a statistic.
Republicans have several state wide races on the May 20 ballot:
Governor: Asa Hutchinson vs. Curtis Coleman.
Lt. Governor: state Rep. Debra Hobbs, Congressman Tim Griffin and state Rep. Andy Mayberry.
Attorney General: Patricia Nation, Leslie Rutledge and David Sterling.
Treasurer: state Rep. Duncan Baird and Dennis Milligan.
State Auditor: Ken Yang and state Rep. Andrea Lea.
And this field should have a significant primary turnout for the GOP. Nothing like they will have come November. There looms, the distinct possibility of a very costly runoff in their Lieutenant Governor's contest for June.
Democrats have only a race on their state wide ballots.
Governor: Mike Ross and Lynette Bryant.
Yes, down the ballot in specific areas of Northwest Arkansas there are some, mainly GOP wrestling matches for some area state House of Representative seats -- notable two with Washington County ties and several in nearby Benton County.
House District 87 -- an open seat: Robin Lundstrum, an Elm Springs city council member and business owner and Lucas Roebuck, an employee of John Brown University.
House District 88 -- Two Springdale men, state Rep. Randy Alexander and Lance Eads are in this race.
So there is not a lot to fret about "cross-over" voting during the upcoming May 20th primary ballot.
MAYLON RICE, A FORMER JOURNALIST HAVING WRITTEN BOTH NEWS AND COLUMNS FOR SEVERAL NWA PUBLICATIONS, HAS BEEN WRITING FOR THE ENTERPRISE-LEADER FOR SEVERAL YEARS.
Editorial on 04/23/2014