Primary ballot shuffle
In Ohio you have to declare party affiliation before you take a partisan ballot in a primary election.
This was something I was not comfortable doing, because I consider myself an independent and because I was an editorial writer with the Dayton Daily News making candidate recommendations at election time.
To declare party affiliation not only wouldn’t accurately reflect my outlook, it would undermine the perception of me as an open minded analyst of which candidate would best serve the public interest and why.
(By the way, I have worked on recommendations for plenty of Republican candidates).
But Missouri has no such requirement as a precondition of taking a partisan ballot, and so when I arrived at my polling place — the lovely and bright Beauvais Manor at Magnolia and South Grand — I took a Democratic ballot as several local races will be decided by the outcome of the Democratic primary.
Earlier in the week I was talking to two guys I know well from the neighborhood. They are reasonable, steady middle aged men, progressive in their outlook and I would guess are Democratic leaning but not political or partisan.
They really surprised me by saying they were thinking about taking a Republican ballot so they could vote for Kenny Hulshoff — because they worried that Sarah Steelman was not well suited to be governor.
This makes me interested to see how many GOP ballots were pulled in traditionally Democratic districts.
(Pictured: Taggart Long, who lives in the Shaw Neighborhood, brought his son Rowan with him to the polling place at Beauvais Manor on Magnolia Avenue in South St. Louis. Post Dispatch/Eddie Roth)
Eddie Roth writes about education, social justice, public safety, transportation, legal affairs and historic preservation. He joined the Post-Dispatch editorial page in 2008 after six years as an editorial writer with the Dayton Daily News. But he is not new to St. Louis. Eddie grew up in Webster Groves and south St. Louis County. He's a lawyer who for many years practiced with a downtown firm, and was active in civic affairs, including serving a term on the St. Louis Police Board. He and his wife, Jeanne, and their three daughters, Emily, Julia and Alice, live in the Shaw Neighborhood.
When it comes to community organizing, he endorses Quentin Crisp's advice: Rather than keeping up with the Joneses, it's better to pull them down to your level. 
Eddie Roth pulled a Democratic ballot? I’d have never guessed!
Seriously, though … if I remember correctly, back in the punch card days (just a few election cycles ago) they had different booths for Democrat and Republican, and you did have to specify which one you wanted. With the electronic balloting, that is no longer needed.
As far as the number of GOP ballots pulled in traditionally Democratic districts … I am a Republican in a traditionally Democratic district. I’m pulling a Republican ballot to vote for Hulshof, but were there no action on the Republican side, I’d probably pull a Democratic ballot so I could vote for Daniel Carroll, who is running in the primary against Jay Nixon. I have no idea who he is, but there was a Daniel Carroll who served as a member of the US Constitutional Convention, a signer of the Articles of Confederation, and a congressman from Maryland. While Carroll died in 1796, he still sounds a lot better than Jay Nixon.
“…the perception of me as an open minded analyst…”
Two errors with that.
First, “open minded” should be hyphenated.
Secondly, nobody — but nobody — perceives Eddie Roth in that way.
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“…the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.” George Washington farewell address September 17, 1796
The wisdom and prophecy of this entire address is well worth a periodic review. He knew exactly how we would destroy our republic from within.
http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/milestones/farewell/text.html