On March 18, a lower state court refused to strike down New Mexico’s closed primary law.  The plaintiff, an independent voter, will appeal to the higher state courts.  The case is Crum v Duran, 2nd district, 202-cv-2014-3730.  See this story.  The Republican Party had intervened in the case in defense of a closed primary for itself.  The Democratic Party, although invited to intervene, did not take any action. Here is the decision.

The basis for the lawsuit had been Art. VII, section 1, which says, “Every person who is a qualified elector pursuant to the Constitution and laws of the United States and a citizen thereof shall be qualified to vote in all elections in New Mexico, subject to residency and registration requirements.”

North Dakota is one of 36 states in which, when there is a U.S. Senate vacancy, the governor appoints someone who serves until the next regularly-scheduled congressional election.  Last month the North Dakota House passed a bill requiring a special election for U.S. Senate when the seat becomes vacant, unless a regular election is quite close in time.

On March 20, the North Dakota Senate Government & Veterans Affairs Committee heard the bill.  The committee hasn’t acted yet.  Here is a story about the hearing.

On March 17, the Greenville County, South Carolina, Republican Party lost its lawsuit over South Carolina’s open primary.  The Fourth Circuit decision, Greenville County Republican Party Executive Committee v Greenville County Election Commission, 13-2170, is 28 pages.

The lawsuit had been filed in 2010 by the county Republican Party and also the state Republican Party.  It challenged state law that requires all parties that nominate by primary to use an open primary, in which any registered voter can participate.  The party wanted to exclude voters who are loyal to other political parties.  One weakness in the case from the beginning is that South Carolina lets parties nominate by convention instead of open primary if they wish.  However, a state law said that if a party wants to switch from an open primary to a convention, the resolution authorizing the change must be made by a vote of three-fourths of all the delegates at the state convention.  Delegates who didn’t vote because they weren’t in the room at the time, or had gone home, were automatically deemed to have voted “no.”  Therefore, the lawsuit also challenged the three-fourths law.

In 2014, the South Carolina state party withdrew from the lawsuit.  The Fourth Circuit opinion says that the Greenville County Republican Party doesn’t have standing to challenge the three-fourths law, or the state law on open primaries.  In another blow to the lawsuit, in 2014 Greenville city (which is in Greenville County) switched from having partisan elections to non-partisan city elections.  Therefore, the remaining strong complaint by the county party, that it was being forced to pay administrative costs to hold a city primary, was made moot.  The county party argued that the city might at any time switch back to having partisan elections, but the Fourth Circuit felt this is unlikely.  The Court appears not to have known that an initiative petition has been filed by some Greenville voters, and the petition has enough valid signatures, so the city will soon be voting on whether to reinstate partisan city elections.  See this story.