This coming Saturday, the Tennessee Republican State Executive Committee will be presented with a resolution that will call for the Tennessee General Assembly to close primaries in the State of Tennessee so that only those voters who make a declaration that they are a member of the Republican or Democratic parties will be permitted to cast a ballot in party primaries. As regular readers of this column might recall, this writer has long personally advocated closing primaries to prevent excessive crossover voting (there is little way to ever prevent the practice completely)

If the Republican SEC, which also serves-like its Democratic counterpart-as the State Primary Board for its political party, should adopt the official position that it favors a closed primary in which only professed and declared Republicans can vote, they should keep in mind that the General Assembly must come up with a way in law to allow a voter who truly does want to switch parties to do so in relatively short order, especially in a State such as Tennessee where more and more traditional Southern Democrats are daily coming to the realization that the political party they profess is not their Daddy's Democratic Party. We saw evidence of this in ample fashion in last month's General Election, when legislative districts which had a Democrat representing them for generations swung Republican.

Democrats can and have used the crossover vote as a means to impact Republican primary elections, especially in areas where they know that a Democrat cannot win. Republicans, conversely, have been known to do the same in parts of West Tennessee when a Republican couldn't be elected. I've consistently written against the practice, especially since I have never in my life voted in a Democratic primary. I am not a Democrat, so I have never believed that I should have a say in nominating candidates for a political party whose core principles I do not share and to which I have no intention of ever belonging. I do not believe that it is morally or ethically right for Democrats to vote in Republican primaries for the same reason. One Democrat here in town told me "if I'm going to have a say in who is elected around here, I have to vote in the Republican primary, otherwise I have no say." It is actually a compelling argument because of the integrity of the ballot, but it may also be the best argument for closed primaries to be had. If Democrats are voting in Republican primaries because they lack a decent one of their own, perhaps a closed primary will encourage Democrats to recruit real candidates and hold real primaries with a serious August (for county offices) or November (for State races) contest-perhaps Democratic voters will demand a choice within their own party.