Andy Downs Writes in The Indy Star on Crossover Voting

The Indianapolis Star published a guest column by Indiana Purdue Fort Wayne professor Andy Downs. 

Mr. Downs was a former Chief of Staff to Fort Wayne Mayor and was a longtime Democratic Party appointee to the Allen County Election Board.

Mr. Downs wrote about the prospect of 'crossover voting' affecting the 2010 primary election contest between State Treasurer Richard Mourdock and incumbent US Senator Richard G. Lugar.

Andy Downs writes in part:

One interesting theme [is] that Democrats might vote in the Republican primary. Political scientists refer to this as crossover or strategic voting, and have been studying it for decades. They have identified two reasons voters do this. One is to try to ensure that the weakest candidate from the opposite party gets the nomination. The hope is that the weak candidate will be defeated in the general election by the strategic voter's preferred candidate. The second reason is to try to ensure that the strategic voter's second favorite candidate makes it to the fall election. As a result, the strategic voter is assured that his first or second favorite candidate will win the general election.

[ ... ]

What decades of research have taught us is that it is rare for strategic voters to be successful. There are two reasons for this.

The first is that it is difficult to identify enough voters willing to cross over to make a difference in the outcome of an election. Anyone who has worked a campaign knows it can be challenging to get people to go out and vote for their candidate. It's an even bigger challenge to convince voters that the best course of action for their candidate is for people to vote in the other party's primary.

The second is that it is difficult to get the strategic voters to agree on the appropriate strategy to pursue. Is it better to vote for the weak candidate or the second favorite candidate? Obviously, if a candidate's campaign organizes the strategic voting effort, supporters would be encouraged to support the opposition party's weaker candidate. However, if the crossover effort isn't organized by a candidate and then voting for the more preferred candidate from the opposition party may seem to be the better choice.

Indiana's primary election laws provide other barriers to successful strategic voting campaigns.

Comments

[Laura McCaffery]

When primary season rolls around, I really wish that Indiana had open primaries. I am a somewhat independent voter who still is idealistic enough to want to vote for the person I feel best suited for the position regardless of party affiliation. Since I prefer to vote even if I can not always select my real preference, I have declared a party. But I still would like to vote my real preferences when they differ from the party selection.