South Carolina Representative Dwight Loftis (R-Greenville) has introduced HB 3581. It would provide that the voter registration form should ask applicants about party membership. Then, it would permit parties to close their primaries so that only party members could vote in those primaries. However, it also recognizes the right of a party to let independent voters vote in its primaries, if the party notifies the state of its wishes.

The bill has nine co-sponsors, all Republicans. They are Alan Clemmons, Mike Burns, Bill Chumley, Bill Taylor, G. Murrell Smith, Adam Morgan, Josiah Magnuson, Bobby Cox, and Jeff Bradley.

Effective with the 2020 election, Texas will no longer have a straight-ticket device, thanks to a bill that passed in 2017. However, State Senator Borris L. Miles (D-Houston) has filed a bill to keep the device for all future elections. It is SB 359. So far, it has no co-sponsors.

Washington State Senator Patty Kuderer (D-Bellevue) has introduced SB 5074. It would provide that a presidential elector who did not vote for the presidential candidate who received the most popular votes in the state would be replaced. All parties, and also independent presidential candidates, would have been required in advance to submit not only a list of presidential elector candidates, but also a list of an equal number of replacement presidential electors.

Washington state now fines “faithless” presidential electors, but allows them to vote for anyone, and counts that vote.

For more, see how electors are chosen.