With a primary for the recall elections only two weeks away, some Republican legislators are calling for party faithfuls to vote in Democratic primaries to deceptively influence the elections.
Rep. Robin Vos, R-Burlington, said while he is not working to coordinate cross-over voting efforts, where a Republican may vote for a Democrat in the election or vice versa, voters have frequently asked him about it.
“We are encouraging Republicans to vote in the Democratic primaries,” Vos told The Associated Press.
Vos said he even cross-voted once, voting for Democratic presidential candidate Jesse Jackson in the 1988 Democratic presidential primary because he thought he would make a weaker candidate against former President George Bush.
According to the AP, Senate Republican Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel earlier this month that nothing is stopping Republican voters from “messing around” with the Democratic primary.
However, Republican Party of Wisconsin spokesperson Ben Sparks said the party is encouraging their supporters to vote for Gov. Scott Walker in a gubernatorial primary. He said no wide spread party-led efforts exist to encourage voters to partake in the Democratic primary.
Sparks said the party is running “protest” or placeholder candidates to ensure a fair election in all six recall primaries.
UW political science professor Kenneth Mayer said it was unlikely cross-over voting would play a significant role in the four senatorial recall elections because most of the candidates are running as placeholder candidates and are not running real campaigns.
He said the main purpose behind the candidates is to create primaries so all general elections happen on the same day. He said it was unlikely any place holder candidates would receive any significant percentage of the vote.
Wisconsin has an open primary, meaning voters do not need to present proof of party registration for the primary but can only vote in one party’s primary.
In the gubernatorial primary, Mayer said it could be possible Republicans crossing over may have an effect on the outcome if they do so in significant numbers. Still, he said it is unlikely cross-over voting will change the outcome of the election.
However, UW political science professor Kathy Walsh said there are real concerns over whether cross-over voting will have an impact on the election. She said in the April 3 Wisconsin presidential primary, cross-over voting occurred.
She also said a number of supporters who voted for former Republican presidential contender and former Pennsylvanian Sen. Rick Santorum in the Wisconsin presidential primary did not look like typical Santorum supporters because they were not supporters of the Tea Party or socially conservative.
She said Democratic voters may have voted for Santorum to make the primary last longer.
“In Wisconsin, cross-over voting has happened, and there’s no reason to expect it will not happen again,” Walsh said.
While Walsh said knowing which candidate people may cross-over to vote for is difficult, she said it would have to be a candidate who had a chance of winning the election but not the strongest contender.
She said in the recall election, there is not a clear target, while in the presidential primary there was because between former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Santorum, Romney was the stronger candidate.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
