The state chair of the Alabama Republican Party, Bill Armistead, says he will work to enable the Republican Party to close its primary to non-members. The Times Daily of Florence has this short editorial, opposing the idea. The Decatur Daily has this short editorial in support of the idea.

The Times Daily is in error to say there are only eleven states with open primaries. There are nineteen such states: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin. Of those, Illinois and Ohio are borderline; those states do not ask voters to choose a party on voter registration forms, but they try to keep a record of which party’s primary is chosen. An “open primary” in one in which, on primary day, any voter is free to choose any party’s primary ballot, but parties do have primary ballots and party nominees.