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This question is a kind of follow-up to a question on Minneapolis reddit. In short:

Are there legal consequences in MN for voting in the opposing party's primary election with the aim of "helping" that party field the opponent you prefer?

For example: as a Democrat, voting in the Republican primary, while intending to vote for the Democrat in the general election?

Just for color, two obvious motivations might be:

  • Get the opposing party to nominate somebody you expect will do badly in the general election. (Aka the "cynical" approach.)
  • Prevent the opposing party from nominating somebody you sincerely believe would be truly terrible if actually elected, by helping a "more reasonable" candidate secure the nomination. (Aka the "sincere" approach.)
Tom
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  • Are you strictly interested about legal consequences? I don't know about Minnesota, but in my country if you vote in the primaries for a political party, there is definitely a financial consequence. Having many voters is good news for the party. – Stef Dec 21 '23 at 10:46
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    There is no such thing as an "opposite party". Minnesota has about 7 parties with some recognized legal status. – einpoklum Dec 21 '23 at 13:47
  • This is actually a common strategy in states with open primaries, especially when the candidate in your own party is running unopposed (as is often the case for an incumbent). But the cross-over group might not be large enough to swing the vote. – Barmar Dec 21 '23 at 15:47
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    @einpoklum For all intents and purposes, the only parties that matter are Republican and Democrat. – Barmar Dec 21 '23 at 15:50
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    @Barmar: "For all intents and purposes" - Not for legal purposes actually. – einpoklum Dec 21 '23 at 16:24
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    A key point is that membership in a political party is largely transitory and a matter of signing a piece of paper, not swearing a loyalty oath. A Democrat who registers to vote in a Republican primary is, by registration, no longer a Democrat. – jeffronicus Dec 21 '23 at 20:13
  • @Barmar Not sure where the cut-off is but there are currently 50+ state legislators who don't belong to either major party. It is also possible that Angus King, Bernie Sanders, and Kyrsten Sinema might disagree with you. – doneal24 Dec 21 '23 at 21:12
  • @doneal24 I don't know about the rest, but I know Bernie caucuses with the Democrats. When he ran for President, he was entered into Democratic primaries. So he knew that running as a third-party candidate would be a wasted effort. The last time a third-party Presidential candidate was taken seriously was Ross Perot. – Barmar Dec 21 '23 at 21:16
  • @Barmar, einpoklum Not necessarily for strategic voting purposes, either. Suppose you're a Republican. You might vote in the Green Party primaries to get them to select a candidate that Democratic voters are more likely to waste their vote on in the general election, or in the Libertarian primaries to select someone who's unlikely to draw away Republican votes. – Ray Dec 22 '23 at 16:53

3 Answers3

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Some states require that you be registered to vote in a political party by a deadline to vote in its primary.

Some states allow unaffiliated voters and voters who are registered to vote in a political party by a deadline (who are not registered to vote in any other political party) to vote in a party's primary.

In those states, it is generally a crime to vote in a primary which you are not eligible legally to vote in.

But, there is nothing illegal about registering to vote in a party insincerely for tactical or strategic purposes.

ohwilleke
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    This exposes my lack of awareness of the American political system, but it surprises me that the major parties (which seemingly officially could be said "don't even exist" according to the law) somehow have a legal standing in some states, to the degree that voter registration can legally make you "a democrat" or "a republican" (labels which practically don't exist), and then also make it a crime to express your opinion in a private poll for a private organization, if you haven't officially registered as a member of the right one. Can my book club get legally binding registration, too? – user99478 Dec 22 '23 at 04:19
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    @user99478: This article gives a summary of some background on the development of the current system, but it is a very complicated story: https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/primaries.pdf (see section titled "The Constitutional Problem") – herisson Dec 22 '23 at 14:24
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    @user99478: The extremely short answer is that primaries are not private polls - they are conducted pursuant to state law, typically state-funded, etc. If you can convince the state to pay for your book club, then state law may apply to that as well. – Kevin Dec 22 '23 at 16:55
  • The first three paragraphs of this answer have no application to the state that was asked about. Nobody registers to vote in a particular political party's primary in Minnesota. Every registered voter is eligible to vote in the primary of any party that appears on the ballot in the primary election. The voter's choice of political party is expressed only on the secret ballot. – Michael Hardy Dec 23 '23 at 13:17
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    why are primaries state-funded, though? – njzk2 Dec 23 '23 at 23:26
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    @njzk2 Primaries are state funded because the electoral process is important to the functioning of the state. It is also somewhat definitional. If something that looks like a primary is not funded by the state, it is called a caucus. – ohwilleke Dec 26 '23 at 17:42
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In Minnesota, persons registering to vote do not declare any party affiliation. No political parties are mentioned on the voter registration form, either by the state, which prepares the form, or by the voter, who answers.

The only time a voter has an official party affiliation is when the voter votes in a primary election. The voter must vote for candidates of a particular party, and if a ballot contains votes for candidates of more than one party, then it is not counted. Voting is by secret ballot, so nobody knows who claimed to be a Republican or a Democrat or supporter of some other party when a ballot is counted.

You choice of which political party to vote for in the primary is therefore nobody's business but your own.

UPDATE: The procedures in Minnesota have changed. The voter is now given the ballot of a party of the voter's choice at the polling place. But there is still no voter registration that says what party (if any) the voter favors.

Michael Hardy
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  • See also: https://www.sos.state.mn.us/elections-voting/how-elections-work/primary-election/

    "You can only vote for candidates from one political party. If you vote for candidates from more than one political party, your votes will not count. You decide when you vote which one of the parties you will vote for—Minnesota does not have political party registration."

     – Nelson O Dec 21 '23 at 23:00
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    This sounds like an "open primary" based on the description. Many states have this. – wberry Dec 22 '23 at 04:09
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    Is there a single ballot for all primaries in Minnesota? Some states have the Dem and GOP primaries on different days. – JimmyJames Dec 22 '23 at 22:17
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    @JimmyJames : Yes. The ballot lists Dem and GOP candidates separately, and perhaps minor parties too. The voter must vote for candidates of only one party; otherwise the ballot is not counted. – Michael Hardy Dec 23 '23 at 05:28
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    It's not 100% secret. "However, a list will be provided to the chair of each major political party of voters who selected that party. How a voter voted on the ballot will be secret." https://www.sos.state.mn.us/elections-voting/how-elections-work/presidential-primary. I'm not sure how the party is allowed to use this list. – Jetpack Dec 23 '23 at 13:58
  • Major parties have presidential primaries and minor parties do not. For 2024, there are three major parties https://www.sos.state.mn.us/elections-voting/how-elections-work/political-parties/: Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, Legal Marijuana Now Party, Republican Party of Minnesota. – Jetpack Dec 23 '23 at 14:04
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    The ballot does require you to certify that you are in "m in general agreement with the principles of the party", so voting in the other party is dishonest in Minnesota. I think other states are more open. https://www.sos.state.mn.us/media/3900/2024-presidential-primary-absentee-ballot-application-direct-balloting.pdf – Jetpack Dec 23 '23 at 14:09
  • @Jetpack : I'm tempted to ask whether any political party can survive in our system if it has principles, but that would lead to a discussion that is far too long, so I won't mention that here – Michael Hardy Dec 23 '23 at 19:13
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As a Majority Inspector in Pennsylvania, I can speak to our experience. You are cross-referenced against your name in the books and are only given a ballot for that party. If you claim that the book is wrong, we will give you the other ballot, but warn you that it will be logged as a provisional ballot, and may be discarded, the same as we do for people who are eligible to vote, or who have already submitted a mail-in ballot. We had a case about two years back where the man in question claimed that he'd switched parties the month before, and that the paperwork must be wrong, so he filled out his provisional ballot. If the margin for votes is small enough, the provisional ballots will be examined for validity and counted.

So, long story short, we'll let you vote with the other party's form, but your ballot will only be counted if it will matter, and will only be considered valid if it is found that you were indeed a member of that party at the time you voted. Your only consequence is a loss of time and effort filling out a ballot that will likely be discarded.

SCD
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    But of course this does not apply to the state that was asked about. – Michael Hardy Dec 21 '23 at 21:47
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    That is true, but I figured it might be useful as a general indication of how these things are handled. – SCD Dec 21 '23 at 22:05
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    @MichaelHardy: Per https://law.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic, "Even if you supply a jurisdiction tag [for your question], we expect and encourage answers dealing with other jurisdictions – while it might not answer your question directly, your question will be here for others who may be from those jurisdictions. If you do this, please tag your answer using the tag markdown: [tag: some-tag]." – ruakh Dec 22 '23 at 08:32