NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Thursday is election day, and if you haven't voted in a primary in a while, you may notice a yellow sign warning you about what political party's primary you choose to vote in — Republican or Democrat.
Some of you have called and emailed us asking what the sign means, especially the part warning voters about committing a crime.
With so many of you reaching out, we want you to know we hear you, and asked our political analyst Pat Nolan to help explain what you need to know if you're heading to the polls.
When you go vote in Thursday's primary, you'll be faced with a question by the poll official: "Which ballot do you prefer today?"
This is your chance to usually select either Democratic or Republican, and you'll be given a ballot with that party's candidates on it.
"You can change back and forth in each election -- you can be a Democrat for a day in one election, you can be a Republican in the next," Nolan said.
In primary elections, you vote among candidates of one party, before the general election in November when you can vote for a candidate of any party.
But some early voters pointed us to a yellow sign now posted at polling places across the state, saying it's a crime to vote in a political party's primary without being a bona fide member of the party.
That law isn't new -- but the requirement to post the law is.
But here's the thing.
Unlike other states, Tennessee doesn't ask you to pick a political party when you register to vote.
Remember, you make that choice of political party on each and every primary, like Thursday's.
"Yes, you can do that," Nolan said. "You can go back and forth election by election and decide which party you want to vote in."
So back to that yellow sign.
Nolan says the question becomes, in a state where you don't officially register as one party or another... what exactly does it mean to be a bona fide, or good faith, member of a party?
"That's one of the reasons I think law enforcement officials have not been wanting to charge somebody with a crime for doing that, because they don't explain what's a bona fide member of a party," Nolan said. "How you'd be able to prove that, unless you overhear a conversation with the person taking you into the voting process, I don't know how people would know."
It's not against the law, Nolan says, to vote in one party's primary in the past, and then honestly decide to switch to voting in another party's primary Thursday.
Information to know ahead of casting your vote.
Fostering Hope provides Christmas for kids in foster care. I'm delighted to see Fostering Hope expand this year to expand their reach to now include kids in Foster care in metro AND foster kids in East TN hard hit by Helene.
-Bree Smith
