DeMarCaTionVille

I’m a bit baffled by this Kurita controversy. I understand that Barnes is in, Kurita is out. And “crossover” voting (oh, you can bet your sweet fanny there were Ron Ramsey-loving Republicans crossing over) served as some basis for the challenge. However, we’ve already discussed this and decided “bona fide” and “allegiance to party” are gray areas in Tennessee election law and therefore not a good reason to overturn an election. You know, if they can vote in ours, we can vote in theirs. Fair enough.

So, I don’t support that as a reason – but this:

George Barrett and the other attorneys for Tim Barnes put on evidence, including sworn affidavits and three witnesses, attesting to the fact that a precinct captain had instructed voters who stated that they wanted to vote for Tim Barnes to vote in the Republican primary. This precinct captain was shown to have ties to Rosalind Kurita.

Uh, if true, isn’t that clearly election fraud? Does election law address this issue? In the crossover voting, it is the candidate or party’s responsibility to have poll watchers to observe the process and challenge voters at the poll. What’s the process for challenging precinct workers?

Unless I’m missing something, I’m thinking the decision to void the election would probably hold up under a legal challenge. Meanwhile, Ramsey, who had discouraged David Davis from contesting the results of his primary loss, argued that Democrats were wrong to overturn Kurita’s victory.

Well, of course, he did.

Tags: Crossover voting, Democrats, open primaries, Poll Tricks, Republicans, Ron Ramsey, Rosalind Kurita, Tim Barnes