New lawsuit renews challenge to Tennessee laws targeting crossover voting in primary elections

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A group of Tennesseans who say they were intimidated into not voting in a primary election or were threatened with prosecution after they did vote has filed a legal challenge to two state laws meant to prevent crossover voting.

A law passed last year requires polling places to post warning signs stating that it’s a crime for someone to vote in a political party’s primary if they are not a bona fide member of that party. It has drawn public attention to a rarely-invoked 1972 law that requires primary voters to be “bona fide” party members or to “declare allegiance” to the party they are voting for.

Tennessee voters do not register by party, and neither law defines what it means to be a bona fide party member. The laws also don’t define how a voter should declare allegiance to a party. One of the plaintiffs is Victor Ashe, a former U.S. ambassador to Poland and longtime Tennessee Republican politician Victor Ashe, who claims the laws are so vague that he could be prosecuted for voting in a Republican primary.

An earlier challenge to the laws brought by Ashe and real estate developer Phil Lawson was dismissed one day before Tennessee’s March 5 presidential primary. U.S. District Judge Eli Richardson ruled that the plaintiffs’ claims of injury were too speculative.

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