On January 25, the West Virginia Republican Party voted to close its primaries, starting in 2026. There are local partisan elections in 2025 and the change does not affect the 2025 elections. See this story. The Republican Party of West Virginia has been letting independents vote in its primaries starting in 1986, but unless the party changes its mind, that policy has now changed.
On January 28, Florida held primary elections for two special U.S. House elections. Florida only holds primaries when at least two candidates file for the nomination, so the only actual primaries were for the Republican and Democratic primaries. See the results here. The general election for these two seats, the First and the Sixth, will be April 1. There is a Libertarian in one race, and independents in both races.
Four bills have been introduced in the South Carolina legislature to switch the state from having open primaries, to either closed primaries or semi-closed primaries. The closed primary bills are H3310, S109, and S113. The bill for a semi-closed primary is H3396. All are pending in the Judiciary Committees of the house of introduction.
South Carolina has always had open primaries.
Since 2023, Ohio State Supreme Court Justice Jennifer Brunner has been fighting an Ohio law passed in 2021 relating to party labels on the ballot. Her federal lawsuit, Brunner v LaRose, n.d., 4:23cv-2180, argues against putting party labels on the November ballot for candidates for Justice of the State Supreme Court, and for Judge of the State Appeals Courts.
Here is her latest brief, from November 2024. It points out that the state code of judicial ethics prevents her from campaigning about partisan matters, yet she is forced to have a party label on the ballot. By contrast, elections for trial level state courts do not have parrty labels on the ballot.
The state’s brief filed in response depends on procedural objections.
Twelve North Dakota legislators have introduced HB 1245, which repeals the ban on paying initiative circulators on a per-signature basis. Here is the text.
