For several months, Nikki Fried, the state chair of the Florida Democratic Party has been trying to persuade her party to let independents vote in Democratic primaries.  Under a 1986 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Tashjian v Republican Party of Connecticut, every party with its own government-administered primary is free to tell the state that the party wants independents to vote in its primaries.

This lengthy article covers the conversation inside the Florida Democratic Party.  Many powerful party leaders are fiercely against the idea, which is surprising, because so many other state Democratic Parties (in states in which the party is weaker than the Republican Party)have invited independents to vote in Democratic primaries.  Among the states with primaries that are closed (unless the party exercises its Tashjian rights), and in which the Democratic Party is obviously weaker than the Republican Party, he only Democratic Parties that have never invited independents into Democratic primaries are Florida and Kentucky.

On June 4, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry signed HB 420.  It changes the procedure for a group to become a qualified party.  The old law required such a group to have 1,000 registrants and to pay a fee of $1,000.  The new law, effective August 1, says it must have 5,000 registrants and pay a fee of $1,000.

Once a group becomes a qualified party, it need not retain 5,000 registrants.  It can remain qualified if it had run a candidate for some partisan office at any time in the last four years.

The bill also says that no party can have “Independent” as part of its name, and that voters who register “independent” will be classed as though they had checked the “no party” box.  And it sets out a procedure for a qualified party to voluntarily cease being qualified.  The Independent Party of Louisiana will now cease to exist as a qualified party.

On May 9, 2025, a federal lawsuit was filed against the new Wyoming law that requires individuals who are registering to vote to include documents proving their citizenship.  Equality State Policy Center v Wyoming Secretary of State, 1:25cv-117.  Here is the Complaint.

The case is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Scott W. Skavdahl, an Obama appointee.