But the results of Tuesday's election show that when election time comes around, such party switching can also be politically suicidal.

Democratic leaders say voters see through such party switching.

At this point, the amount of party switching is far too small and occurring in far too few places to qualify as a national trend.

When party switching has occurred, it has caught the eye of some local election officials, especially when there seems to be no apparent explanation for the change.

By the late 19th century, as the Democratic and Republican parties became more established, however, party switching became less frequent.

Many Republicans insisted that the party switching did not represent a trend, and that deeply conservative values still prevailed in the South.

In addition, there has been a slowdown in Democrat-to-Republican party switching.

Deadline for party switching has passed.

For Morse, party switching resulted in significant consequences, both negative and positive.

Although at least one Democratic senator objected to his status, Byrd's party switching had no impact on his seniority.