Voting Rights
Ruling Expected to Racially Polarize MS Politics
Posted Jul 18, 2007, 08:40 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
A federal court ruling that bars crossover voting in Mississippi Democratic primaries is reportedly likely to push moderate whites to register with the Republican party.
U.S. District Judge Allen Pepper Jr. ruled last month that the Democratic party may disassociate itself from voters who are not party members, the New York Times reports. Centrist voters in the state often voted for moderate Democrats in the primaries but gave their votes to national GOP candidates.
Few whites are likely to register as Democrats, the newspaper reports, “a prospect that Republicans regard with glee, white Democrats with horror and black leaders with indifference.”