Tennessee state Rep. John Ragan, R-Oak Ridge, is challenging his primary loss, alleging more than 1,000 Anderson County voters who were not legitimate Republicans crossed over to cast a GOP ballot in the race he lost by just 258 votes.
Ragan's challenge rests on controversial state law that states only "bona fide" members of a political party can vote in their party primary. But the law has never been enforced, in part because there is no legal definition of what makes a voter a "legitimate" Republican or Democrat.
But Ragan argues the Republican Party's own bylaws, which created bona fide definitions for candidates, hold the roadmap for his election challenge.
Ragan on Friday sent an official contest to the Tennessee Republican Party primary board to challenge his loss to Rick Scarbrough earlier this month. Per state code, he waited to file the challenge until the election was officially certified in Anderson County, Ragan told The Tennessean.
Ragan said the challenge was not intended to disparage his opponent or the election officials.
"As far as I know, they've done their job exceptionally well as far as the mechanics of the election," Ragan said. "It is purely and simply a complaint about immoral, unethical, and illegal behavior."
Scarbrough believes Ragan has long planned to challenge a potential loss on these grounds. In a Thursday letter sent to Scarbrough's future House colleagues on Thursday, he asked Republican lawmakers to encourage members of the state Republican Executive Committee, which acts as the primary committee, not to allow the contest to go forward.
"While I am steadfast in my confidence in the election results and the outcome of any contest, I do fear the dangers this path may pose for our Party, our focus, and the faith all voters have in our election process," Scarbrough said in the letter. "I also fear this action could negatively impact Republican candidates on the ballot across the state in November. Foremost, to my best knowledge, our Party has never taken the step of throwing out the votes of thousands of Tennessee Republican voters to change the outcome of an election. And rightfully so."
Under state code, the party's primary board can dismiss the challenge. If they agree to hear it, they would set out a formal hearing challenge.
In his longshot challenge to the primary results, Ragan points to state code, which has been on the books for years but rarely enforced, that states it is illegal to vote in a political party's primary without being a "bona fide" member of or affiliated with that political party.
The "bona fides" law sparked renewed controversy last year, when legislative Republicans passed a new law that requires polling places to display prominent signage warning voters it is illegal to cross over to vote in a competing primaries.
That law has drawn several court challenges over its vague language and questions about how it could ever be effectively enforced. Tennessee operates an open primary system, meaning anyone can walk up to a polling place and pull the primary ballot of their choosing.
Tennessee does not require people to declare a party when they register to vote, and there is no legal definition of what would make a "bona fide," or genuine, Republican or Democratic voter.
Ragan, however, argues the Tennessee Republican Party has set its own definition in its bylaws, which define a "bona fide Republican" candidate as someone who has voted in at least three of the four most recent statewide Republican primaries and is actively involved in the state GOP or county affiliated party.
"The data I have has record of those people not having fulfilled that criteria," Ragan said. "There's a huge number of them whose only votes recorded in the last four primary elections were Democrat."
The challenge is unusual, but not without precedent in Tennessee. In 2008, the Tennessee Democratic Party stripped a nominating primary win from state Sen. Rosalind Kurita after her opponent alleged too many Republicans had crossed over to vote for her. Kurita unsuccessfully sued over the issue.
Scarbrough cited the Kurita challenge in his letter to lawmakers.
"We cannot become that which we strive to defeat," Scarbrough said. "Our shared Republican values call us to respect and uphold the rule of law."
Ragan's challenge will attempt to thread a delicate needle. The Tennessee Republican Party has attempted to fend off certain candidates in the recent years based on bona fides charges, but Ragan's argument places a heavy burden on undecided voters or voters with shifting political priorities interested in casting a GOP ballot for the first time.
"If they're casting a vote, they're canceling other people's votes, the other people who should be there legally participating," Ragan said, suggesting Democrats crossed over to specifically vote against him.
When asked how could any voter who hasn't been a lifelong Republican could ever turn to the GOP under such strict bona fides definitions, Ragan argued they could prove party loyalty by becoming active with the county party. The lawmaker said he pulled attendance rosters from recent Anderson County Republican Party meetings to cross-reference his voting data.
"My concern is about immoral, illegal behavior," Ragan said. "If people are willing to do that, I'm not sure I want them in the same party I'm in."
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee state Rep. John Ragan challenges primary loss, alleges illegal crossover voting
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