On January 8, three Indiana representatives introduced HB 1029, which would change Indiana primaries from open to closed. Indiana has always been an open primary state and has never had registration by party. Here is the bill.

The bill is flawed because the authors made no provision for a primary party to tell the state that it wants independents to be able to vote in its primaries. The U.S. Supreme Court decision Tashjian v Republican Party of Connecticut requires that parties with primaries be given this option.

The bill says that the voter registration form would in the future enclose a blank line for a voter to register into a party. The form would not list any parties. The bill does not say if the state must keep a tally of voters who register into an unqualified party, which courts in Colorado, Iowa, Oklahoma, New York, and New Jersey have required. The bill does not even say if qualified parties that nominate by convention are entitled to a tally of their registrants.

The authors are Representatives Michelle Davis of Whiteland, J.D. Prescott of Union City, and Elizabeth Rowray of Yorktown. Two of the authors are Assistant Majority Floor Leaders.