Bills have been introduced in each house of the Missouri legislature to change primaries from open to closed. The bills are SB 907 by Senator Andrew Koenig (R-Manchester) and HB 1450 by Representative Dan Stacy (R-Blue Springs).

The bills are flawed, because they don’t have a provision allowing parties to invite independents to vote in their primaries. In 1986 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Tashjian v Republican Party of Connecticut that parties have the freedom to let independents vote in their primaries, if they wish.