"I Love the Smell of Napalm in the Morning!"

You may have seen the Vietnam War movie, Apocalypse Now, which starred Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen, Robert Duvall, and Dennis Hopper. Some of the recent pieces on the Mississippi Democrats' challenge of our primary election law could well be titled, "Apocalypse in the Near Future."

One of the things that has been stated in the wake of U. S. District Judge Allen Pepper's ruling is that the forced re-registration of ALL Mississippi voters is inevitable. That's not true. The legislature is free to start a system of registration by party in which all voters already on the rolls are considered to be independents. The only voters who would need to re-register would be those who wanted to affiliate with a party.

If our current primary election law is ultimately struck down-- as I believe it will be-- independent voters will continue to have their choice of either the Democratic or the Republican primary, since both parties have said that they will invite independents. Democrats will also have their choice of either party’s primary, while Republicans will only be able to vote in the Republican primary.

Both Rhode Island and Utah have fairly recently begun a system of registration by party in which old voter registrants are deemed to be independents. Consequently, the largest group of voters in each state is registered independents.

Incidentally: can you name the actor whose line is the title of this post?