So how many crossed over to vote in open primaries?
Interesting question that, of course, no one knows the answer to.
It's also a complicated question because it attempts to draw implications about cross overs that also are unknown.
On the one hand, it could be that democrats could crossover and vote for Trump because of an organized attempt to pick who they perceive as a weaker candidate. But this seems unlikely. First, if that was the case, the crossovers would have voted for Cruz or Kasich, the weakest candidates. It also assumes a level of coordinated voting that we talk about of FR but for which little substantial evidence exists. Finally, it seems less likely that democrats would cross over when they have two very liberal candidates in a relatively close race.
It's also possible that, if there were substantial crossovers, that they might turn out to be Trump voters in the general election. This seems somewhat more likely given a generally increasing mistrust of government and the fact that Trump would be acknowledged as less "conservative" than Cruz. But there's no way of knowing this either.
One thing is certain, the democrats SHOULD be beatable this time around. Their candidates are extraordinarily unattractive. But I never discount the ability of the establishment GOP to completely botch an opportunity by assuring the nomination of a loser.
There is significant evidence that there was a yuge Democrat cross-over vote in the counties around Milwaukee in the Wisconsin primary.
It looks like those votes went for Cruz.
Oddly, the voters in the rest of the state, including Democrat stronghold Dane County, were allowed to fight it out like a normal primary.
YUGE turnout for the Bern in Dane - even more than Das BlackenWhiten Fuhrer got in 2008.