ABSTRACT
Positive views of crossover voters include normative concerns, such that all Americans should be able to participate in a primary without having to register as a partisan. The participation of independent voters in primary elections also may be beneficial to the party. Reformers argue that the presence of independent voters will ameliorate the ideological extremity of the partisan primary voters. That nearly 90 percent of primary voters are core supporters of the party greatly diminishes the importance of crossover voters in debates over the nature of primary electorates. Social scientists report only a few isolated cases where crossover voters altered the outcome of a presidential primary. The chapter reviews the competitive levels of recent primary outcomes and explores the influence of crossover voters by using the media exit polls. The ideological orientation of primary voters is influenced by the presence of crossover voters, but the biggest change comes between strong partisans and weak partisans and leaning independents.
