According to this news story, the Rhode Island Republican Party’s state executive committee will meet during the first week in January, and will consider the idea of excluding independent voters from the party’s primaries.
Rhode Island didn’t even have registration by party until about ten years ago. Thus, the state has a tradition of open primaries, and the idea, if implemented, would be a sharp break from the past. Because registration by party is relatively new in Rhode Island, only 10.95% of the state’s voters are registered Republicans, as of the November 2008 tally, which is the last available tally. If the Republican committee does close the party’s primary, this would probably cause a big increase in support for the Moderate Party, which is the only ballot-qualified party in the state other than the Democratic and Republican Parties. The Moderate Party became a qualified party in 2009 with a petition drive.
Are they afraid of the tea-party crowd or what?
In the current Rhode Island system, an independent who wants to vote in a party’s primary may do so by changing his registration at the polling place on primary day. Such a voter must wait at least 90 days before again changing his registration.
New Hampshire has the same setup, except that such a voter may switch back to independent status before leaving the polling place.
A few years ago, there was a bill in the New Hampshire legislature to establish a waiting period for such voters to switch back to independent status. When the word got out about this bill, the voters raised hell.