JEANNE MESERVE, CNN ANCHOR: State primary voting, the focus of arguments today before the Supreme Court. Specifically, so-called "blanket primaries," where voters may choose among candidates from any party. CNN senior Washington correspondent Charles Bierbauer has the latest on the challenge to California's system -- Charles.</s>CHARLES BIERBAUER, SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Jeanne, California passed Proposition 198 in 1996 in an effort to expand voting and get more people out to the polls. As you suggest, it allows any voter to vote for any party for any office in the primaries. But some of the justices, in the arguments just completed here at the Supreme Court, were very skeptical of that approach. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor called it "remarkable," saying that the very essence of a party's first amendment rights to define its association is to send out its own message and send out its own candidates. Justice Antonin Scalia similarly said: what about a party that doesn't want to be more representative? Maybe it thinks the country is going the wrong way and wants to send a strong message. Well, what happened in California in the March primaries, of course, was indicative of this. Seven hundred thousand Democrats voted for Republican candidates, only 200,000 Republicans voted for Democratic candidates. Senator John McCain got 700,000 crossover ballots. It does have a potential impact in the primaries, although in this case the parties bringing the case to the court, both Republicans and Democrats say it would not be retroactive to effect that primary -- Jeanne.
Supreme Court Debates 'Blanket Primaries'