The annual attempt to tie voters’ hand by forcing them to register a political party affiliation, or none at all, is underway.
In what seems like an annual exercise, a bill has been filed in the Tennessee legislature by state Sen. Joey Hensley, R-Hohenwald, and state Rep. Susan Lynn, R-Mount Juliet, to ostensibly prevent crossover voting.
The state currently does not require political party registration, though a voter who casts a ballot in the state’s open primary elections is supposed to be a “bona fide” member of the political party in whose primary the ballot is cast.
The bill is simple enough in that it declares that voters on their voter registration record would designate the party with which they are affiliated, or they may select to be unaffiliated. If they do not choose a political party, they would be registered by the county election commission as unaffiliated.
Similar bills have failed in various Senate and House committees over the past five years.