Texas Representative Mike Lang (R-Eastland) has introduced HB 377. It would add a question about an applicant’s party registration on the Texas voter registration application. It would also provide that only party members could vote in primaries.

It would also make it illegal for registered party members to sign a petition for an independent candidate or a new party. A similar Arizona law was held unconstitutional in Campbell v Hull, 73 F Supp 2d 1081, in 1999. The only other state that ever had a law like that was Louisiana, but Louisiana repealed it in 1948.

The Texas bill is also faulty because it doesn’t acknowledge that a party has the right to invite independents to vote in its primaries. Instead it forces closed primaries, or closed conventions, on all parties.

On January 15, the Virginia House Privileges and Elections Committee defeated SB 1002 by a vote of 11-3. It would have let each U.S. House district elect its own presidential elector, as is done in Maine and Nebraska. The author was Senator Amanda Chase (R-Midlothian).

A similar bill is pending in the House, although it would amend the state constitution. It is HJR 627, by Delegate Mark Cole (R-Fredericksburg).

Independent Maine Representative Kent Ackley, and nine other Maine legislators, have introduced LD 211. It would allow voters who are not registered in a qualified party to vote in any partisan primary they wish. Here is the text.