New Mexico Senator Mark Moores (R-Albuquerque) has introduced SB 418, which would let parties have a closed primary if they wish, but they would be required to pay the election administration costs of their own primary. If they let independents vote in their primary, then the government would continue to pay for the primary.

The bill would be better if it permitted parties to nominate by convention. An 8th circuit opinion from Arkansas says that if the government forces parties to nominate by primary, then the government must pay for that primary. All New Mexico parties nominated by convention before 1938, and qualified minor parties in New Mexico still nominate by convention, so the notion of convention nominations is not foreign to New Mexico.