On March 9, a Michigan State Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that the list of which voters chose a Democratic presidential primary ballot, or a Republican presidential primary ballot, in the January 2008 presidential primaries, is public information. Practical Political Consulting v Land, 291176. Here is the decision. The majority opinion is 19 pages and the dissent is 19 pages. Thanks to John Anthony La Pietra for the link.
The 2008 Democratic presidential primary results had been: Clinton 328,309; uncommitted 238,168; Kucinich 21,715; Dodd 3,845; Gravel 2,361. Most observers believe that many Democrats chose a Republican primary ballot, because the Democratic ballot did not carry the names of Barack Obama or John Edwards. They had boycotted the Democratic primary because the national party rules didn’t permit the party to recognize a primary that early, in a state other than New Hampshire.
The Republican primary results had been: Romney 338,316; McCain 257,985; Huckabee 139,764; Paul 54,475; Thompson 32,159; Giuliani 24,725; uncommitted 18,118; Hunter 2,819; Tancredo 457; Brownback 351.
If the state doesn’t appeal to the State Supreme Court, the lists will become public. Chances are, some Michigan Democratic Party office-holders voted in the Republican Party’s presidential primary, and they won’t especially enjoy having that become publicly known.
The national party rules did not let New Hampshire hold its primary so early either. The DNC voted to selectively (not) apply its rules.
Didn’t the lists already go to the political parties? So the Michigan Democratic Party would already know who voted in which primary. Even if the primary was such a mess that the records were never actually distributed, voters would not have known that when they voted.
The MORONS on all sides failed to note –
1963 Mich Const
Art. II, Sec. 4. The legislature shall enact laws to regulate the time, place and manner of all nominations and elections, except as otherwise provided in this constitution or in the constitution and laws of the United States. The legislature shall enact laws to preserve the purity of elections, [[[ to preserve the secrecy of the ballot ]]], to guard against abuses of the elective franchise, and to provide for a system of voter registration and absentee voting. No law shall be enacted which permits a candidate in any partisan primary or partisan election to have a ballot designation except when required for identification of candidates for the same office who have the same or similar surnames.
Mich has a regular open primary (at the moment), each voter may only vote in one party hack primary — SECRET as to which party AND which candidates in such party.
On to the Mich Supremes — who hopefully have some brain cells.
Otherwise — the COA opinion may be used in other States to totally subvert secret ballots — one of the MAJOR reforms to save Democracy in the late 1800s.