On February 17, the South Dakota Senate State Affairs Committee defeated SB 175. This is the bill that would have provided that independent voters may vote in any party’s primary. Current law lets each qualified party decide for itself whether to let independents vote in its primary.
Richard — I’m confused about what happened to SB 175. On the SD legislature’s website, the bill seems to have passed out of committee by a vote of 4-1. Can you explain? Phyllis
You’re right. The problem is, the next day the same committee voted not to send the bill to the floor. I had to telephone the legislature clerk’s office to ask what that entry meant. She said the bill is dead. Sometimes legislatures use very indirect phrases when they kill a bill. I guess they think it protects against hurt feelings. New Hampshire legislative committees always say, when they kill a bill, that they have found the bill “inexpedient”, for example.
It’s just as well that SB 175 was killed, since it’s almost certainly unconstitutional for the state to force parties to let independents vote in their primaries.
Once again —
Nominations of PUBLIC candidates for PUBLIC offices by PUBLIC Electors (All or a factional part) is PUBLIC business – totally subject to PUBLIC laws.
The MORON SCOTUS folks messed up the issue in the 2000 CA case.
See the earlier SCOTUS Texas White Primary cases – 1928-1932.
Thanks, Richard. I think you’re being too kind in ascribing the legislators’ circumlocutions to their desire not to hurt anyone’s feelings. My guess is that they’re simply being self-serving: when they come a-courtin’ in November, these politicians don’t want independent voters to remember that they excluded them from the primaries.
Unconstitutional ! HA !What is unconstitutional is taxing the public to put on primaries that a large portion of the public is excluded from!!
#6: You’re not excluded if you’re a party member in a closed-primary system. And independents are included if a party invites them.
In 1995, the 8th circuit ruled that, when the state mandates that parties hold primaries, the parties cannot be required to pay for those primaries (Republican Party of Arkansas v. Faulkner County).