Ohio Representative John Becker (R-Clermont County) wants to soon introduce a bill to provide that Ohio voter registration forms ask voters to choose a party. That would enable parties to limit their primaries to only registered members, should they wish to. Becker has some other election law bills, including a bill to require government photo-ID for voters at the polls. See this story.

There would be one advantage to Ohio putting a question about party membership on voter registration forms. Such a policy would make it easy for people who wish to be considered independent voters to prove they are independent voters. An independent voter would simply be someone who had not chosen a party on the form. Current law prohibits people from getting on the ballot if they are not independent. Unfortunately, though, because there is no objective standard for who is an independent, anyone is likely to be disqualified as an independent candidate if he or she is perceived as being associated with a political party. This is highly arbitrary, and results in election board hearings and court cases in which a candidate’s political activities are brought up as evidence.