Missouri Representative Dan Stacy (R-Blue Springs) has introduced HB 1345. It changes Missouri from a state with open primaries, to a state with closed primaries. The Missouri voter registration form does not now ask the applicant to choose a party, but in the future it would. A registered member of a party who voted in a closed primary would be unable to change party affiliation for at least one year after that primary.
The bill does not provide that a party that wants to let independents vote in its primary may do so, so the bill is unconstitutional as applied to that issue. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1986 in Tashjian v Republican Party of Connecticut that parties may decide for themselves whether to let independents vote in their primaries.
The bill says that if a party wants an open primary, or if it wants to nominate by caucus, it can do that, but it must pay the cost of administering such a primary or caucus.
I would think it would violate the first amendment not to allow people to change their party registration for a year. It also mean you would always have to skip a year of primary voting to change your party. Of course, the state can have a reasonable cutoff date before the primary for administrative purposes.
NO primaries — producing extremist hack nominees in the rigged gerrymander districts.
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PR and AppV