South Carolina Republicans sue state to end open primary elections

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Hill

07/10/26 3:11 PM ET


The South Carolina Republican Party has filed a lawsuit in a bid to force the state’s open primary elections to close as part of a long-running push to restrict GOP contests to only registered Republican voters. The Palmetto State currently does not require registration by party and allows voters to participate in either of the state’s primary contests regardless of their partisan affiliation. Voters can choose to participate in one but not both.

In the new lawsuit, filed July 6, the South Carolina GOP argues the open-primary model violates its First Amendment rights to free association and the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment by compelling the party to open its primaries to those who are not affiliated with it and “do not subscribe to the party’s principles.”

“An open primary system permits voters who have not joined the Republican Party to influence the Party’s most important associational act: choosing its nominee, thus depriving the Party of the fundamental right of association and the fundamental right to govern its own affairs,” lawyers wrote on behalf of the party.

The challenge asks a federal judge to force the South Carolina Election Commission to comply with a new state party rule that limits Republican primary participation to only GOP voters.

Read more: https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5963026-south-carolina-republicans-lawsuit-primary-elections/

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Link to SUIT (PDF) - https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.scd.322019/gov.uscourts.scd.322019.1.0.pdf

GOP vs GOP

[Haggard Celine]

1. We have open primaries in Mississippi too,

and Republicans have been complaining here too. I vote in the Republican primaries often because that's the only way to have any influence over who wins. I vote for the Democrat in the general election, of course, but I vote for the least radical of the Republicans in the primary. A lot of other Democrats do the same thing, and we've kept some real stinkers from winning. The stinkers complain and raise hell when they lose, but so far nothing has changed. I think a lot of the Republicans like the system too. It makes it a lot harder for a demagogue to win.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. Ironically fewer and fewer states still have closed primaries

PA being one. You now have some states moving to "ranked choice" and "jungle primaries" too!

[mdbl]

3. These are the same assholes that used that very priviledge to screw Dem primaries for more than four decades.

Now they don't want anyone else to do this - typical hypocrites that they are.

[Raftergirl]

4. I don't like open primaries. I only want Democrats to vote in the Democratic primaries. And why would anyone

who is a D, give up their right to select the candidate that they would like to represent them? And I don’t want any Republicans effing up who the D candidate will be.

I also doubt it changes who the winning candidate would be on either side. Likely not nearly enough to move the needle.

In NYS we don’t have open primaries and independents cannot vote in any primaries, either.