On March 30, U.S. District Court Judge J. Michelle Childs, an Obama appointee, turned aside the Republican Party lawsuit against South Carolina’s open primary as applied to the Republican Party. The outcome was not too surprising, because South Carolina is in the 4th circuit, and the 4th circuit ruled earlier in a Virginia case that if a party has a choice of whether to nominate by primary or convention, and it chooses a primary, it must follow the state election law on who can participate. Like Virginia, South Carolina lets all parties decide whether to nominate by primary or convention.
However, the Republican Party had also argued that it isn’t truly free to choose to nominate by primary, because another state law says the party can’t nominate by convention unless 3/4ths of the delegates agree. However, the judge upheld the 3/4ths law as well. Here is the 25-page decision. The name of the case is The Greenville County Republican Party v State of South Carolina, 6:10-cv-1407. Thanks to Harry Kresky for the link.
Again — ALL or SOME Electors are doing PUBLIC nominations of candidates for PUBLIC offices.
Sorry – NO mention in the U.S.A. Constitution that X percent of ALL Electors in a group (aka political party) can have the group candidate on the official PUBLIC general election ballots — i.e. have a group nomination totally independent of ALL government laws.
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This ruling by an Obama-appointed Democrat upholds state laws that unconstitutionally force Republicans to allow Democrats to vote in Republican primaries. Any questions?
@3: In an open primary, anyone can vote in one primary of their own choosing. Presumably you’d vote in the primary of the party one most identifies with. Perhaps #3 is trying to blame Nikki Haley and Ken Ard on the Democrats.
I’m not sure why the Greenville GOP is pushing for the closed primary, unless they want to exclude moderate independents.
The decision suggests that Idaho need not vest the decision as to who may participate in a party’s primary in the party chairman, and may select a more representative body, including the state convention, or the electorate of the party at large.
The top party hack robots LOVE closed primaries — to have lunatic extremist party hack candidates on the general election ballots in the gerrymander districts.
Thus the gerrymander ROT since 1789 in the Congress – and the current deficit CRISIS in Deficit City — potential regime shutdowns and debt default.
The party hacks in the States are not quite as EVIL insane as the Congress hacks – due to spending limits in many States.