NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A group of Tennessee residents who say they were intimidated into not voting in a primary election or threatened with prosecution after voting have filed a lawsuit challenging two state laws intended to prevent cross-voting.
A law passed last year requires polling places to post warning signs that it is a crime to vote in a political party’s primary if you are not a bona fide member of that party. He drew 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 for which they are voting. .
Tennessee voters do not register by party, and neither law defines what it means to be a bona fide member of a party. The laws also do not define how a voter must declare allegiance to a party. One of the plaintiffs is Victor Asheformer U.S. ambassador to Poland and longtime Republican politician from Tennessee, Victor Ashe, who says the laws are so vague he could be prosecuted for voting in a Republican primary.
A previous challenge to laws introduced by Ashe and property developer Phil Lawson was rejected a day before the March 5 presidential primary in Tennessee. U.S. District Judge Eli Richardson ruled that the plaintiffs’ claims of harm were too speculative.
They refiled the lawsuit in district court last week, adding new plaintiffs and new claims for actual harm.
Lawson said that while he is one of the largest donors to the Tennessee Democratic Party, he has also donated to Republican candidates and voted for candidates from both parties in the past. Lawson said he abstained from voting in the Republican primary in March for fear of prosecution.
The new plaintiffs include Gabe Hart, a Madison County resident who claims the local prosecutor told him he could be prosecuted after he wrote and spoke in local media about voting in a Republican Party primary, although that he identified as a Democrat for many years. years.
Plaintiff James Palmer, a Roane County resident, chose not to vote in the recent presidential primary rather than risk prosecution, according to the lawsuit. Palmer had planned to vote in the Republican primary but feared legal action because he had supported Democratic candidates in the past.
The plaintiffs claim that Tennessee’s election laws violate their First Amendment rights to participate in the political process. They also argue that the laws violate the due process clause of the U.S. Constitution because they are so vague that voters cannot know whether they will be prosecuted, according to the lawsuit.
In fact, prosecutors in different judicial districts have offered very different interpretations of the laws and how they should be applied, the suit claims.
The plaintiffs seek a declaration that the election laws are unconstitutional and a court order preventing their enforcement.
The new lawsuit added a number of Tennessee prosecutors as defendants after Richardson found…
