On February 20, the Tennessee House Subcommittee on Elections and Campaign Finance passed HB 1273. It provides that voter registration forms will ask the applicant to choose a party, or else choose independent status. It also says that primaries in the future will be closed.
The bill is legally flawed because it does not take into account that any party with its own primary has a First Amendment freedom of association right to invite independents to vote in its primaries, per Tashjian v Republican Party of Connecticut, a 1986 U.S. Supreme Court decision.
The bill is ambiguous as to newly-qualifying parties, which nominate by convention. And it is ambiguous about the ability of voters to register into an unqualified party. It does provide that choices on the voter registration should include a blank line. The sponsor is Representative Andy Holt (R-Dresden).
Tashjian —
one more perversion of the 1st Amdt —
since the SCOTUS HACK MORONS since 1968 can NOT detect that
— each party is a FACTION/fraction of ALL PUBLIC Electors/Voters in each State
— with PUBLIC laws for the PUBLIC election process.
Sorry – NO independent party empires.
The preamble of the bill asserts that the right to vote is guaranteed by the US Constitution only for general elections. The Tennessee constitution declares that all elections shall be free and equal.
The preamble also asserts that’s voters who have allegiance to one statewide party are voting in primaries of another statewide political party which they do not have allegiance, which is a felony offense under current law.
Why don’t they just prosecute these political offenders and put them in prison or a mental hospital where they might be rehabilitated. A Class D felony can be punished by two to twelve years imprisonment and a fine of up to $5000.
The bill requires that registration forms have Demo+Rep parties listed with a blank for other statewide political parties.
Tennessee defines a party that received more than 5% of the vote for any statewide office as a “statewide political party” rather than a “major party”. A voter who wrote-in “Libertarian” or “Constitution” might be prosecuted for perjury.