Opinion ID: 457052
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Preventing Raiding

Text: 87 Raiding is a practice whereby voters in sympathy with one party designate themselves as voters of another party so as to influence or determine the results of the other party's primary. Rosario v. Rockefeller, supra, 410 U.S. at 760, 93 S.Ct. at 1251. The State's interest in preventing raiding, though it may be legitimate in certain contexts, 26 is inapposite in the instant action. The Party Rule allows only unaffiliated voters to participate in Republican Party primaries; no such invitation has been extended to Democrats or members of other political parties. Moreover, we believe the spectre of Democratic voters severing their party ties en masse, and claiming independent status to mount a raid on a Republican Party is effectively eliminated by another section of the Connecticut General Statutes, see Conn.Gen.Stat. Sec. 9-59, which provides that a person affiliated with one party may not vote in the primary of another party within six months after leaving his original party. 88 Finally, the State's professed interest in preventing raiding is belied by its recent enactment of Public Act 84-118, permitting unaffiliated voters to affiliate with a political party until noon on the day immediately prior to the primary election. It would appear anomalous for a state truly concerned with voter raiding to eliminate any obstacle to independent voters determined to disrupt the candidate selection process of a political party.