On June 7, the Louisiana House Governmental Affairs Committee passed SB 53, but in a drastically different form. SB 53 in its latest incarnation changes the state’s congressional elections to a semi-closed primary system, a big change from the current system.

Senator Cleo Fields, author of SB 53, introduced it earlier this year as a bill to set up semi-closed primary elections in congressional elections, and in that form, it passed the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. But then he changed the bill into a version of the “top-two” system (but with a timing difference), and in that form it passed the House last month. Now the bill is back to its original version. If it passes the House in this latest version, it will then need to go back to the Senate to see if the Senate concurs.