Then a longtime state GOP official said that, no, it’s “semi-closed.” That means it’s pretty much open.

Here’s how it works: You walk into the polls and are asked to declare whether you want a Democratic ballot or a Republican ballot. You can pick either and then vote.

Now, under a new state rule, your choice will be recorded and public information — and could subject you to annoying robo-calls, vendor solicitations and such. Also, you’ll have some explaining to do if you run for office in the future. But that’s about it.

And crossover voting is not uncommon in Michigan. It’s hard to quantify, but some veteran Democrats think such voting may have been responsible for Sen. John McCain’s primary victory over George W. Bush in 2000 — or at least that it padded his vote total. There was, in fact, an effort among the libs to organize a crossover campaign.

More recently, Republican Rick Snyder was elected governor in 2010 after winning a four-way GOP primary, apparently with hefty support from Democrats unhappy with their party’s two contenders — one was seen as ultra-liberal, and the other was moderate but lacked support from abortion rights groups.

So, we are told, many Democrats opted instead to vote on the GOP ballot for Snyder, seeing him as the only moderate on that ballot.

There don’t seem to be clear signs yet of any effort by Democrats in Michigan — orchestrated or not — to embarrass Mitt Romney in his longtime home state by voting for Rick Santorum or another opponent. (Even if they wanted to, the Democrats probably couldn’t figure out which other candidate to vote for.)

On the other hand, in the age of social media, these things can jell quickly, very quickly. The popular liberal blog Daily Kos posted a call Wednesday on Facebook for Democrats to cross over for Santorum in Michigan and other states with open primaries or caucuses.

The move is called “Operation Hilarity.”

A fat mess

The Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program, designed to enhance security against terrorist attack, began about five years ago. The goal was straightforward — figure out which facilities were the most vulnerable and dangerous and then monitor industry efforts to secure those sites.

Since then, CFATS (that’s “Cee-fats”) has received about 4,200 site security plans from businesses — which have spent tons of their own money on plans and improvements — to obtain a government seal of approval for their efforts.

So far, some $480 million later, not one has been approved. Zero. And heads may roll.

A blistering internal investigation in November, recently released to a House Energy and Commerce oversight subcommittee, found a program beset with untrained and unqualified staff, cronyism, “an environment for fraud, waste and abuse,” and use of government travel cards for equipment and “unauthorized expenses.” It talked of a “catastrophic failure” and a leadership that didn’t want to hear bad news.