Mississippi Primary Law

One of the little know Mississippi primary laws is the "no-crossover law" with regards to primaries. While Mississippi is an open primary state, one does not have to be a registered party member to vote in a party primary, that does not mean a person can vote one party's primary election and the another party's primary run-off election.

This idea is built on the idea that if a person is voting in a party primary they are a member of that party registered or not and MS law requires that you "support the nominations made in the primary in which he participates". MS Code 23-15-575.

Where is comes into play now is when people, typically radio personalities like Rush Limbaugh, convince voters to go and vote in the primary opposite of their normal party allegiance for the purpose of tearing down or defeating (hopefully) the person who is the voters actual favorite candidate will face in the general election.

I should also mention that this law, 23-15-575, has been challenged on slightly different grounds and ruled unconstitutional but the federal court in that case said the current rules could remain in place through the summer of 2008 because the DOJ would not have time to approve changes before the elections (which we are currently in between) occurred. See Mississippi Democratic Party v. Barbour from the Northern District of Mississippi in 2007 for more on this case.