On October 16, both houses of Congress voted on HB 2775, the bill to re-open the federal government. Republicans who voted on the bill include 231 in the U.S. House and 45 in the U.S. Senate, totaling 276 Republican votes on the bill.

Among those 276 Republicans who voted on the bill, 135 were from states with open Republican primaries, 39 from states with semi-closed Republican primaries, 24 from states with a top-two primary, and 78 from states with closed Republican primaries. “Semi-closed” means that independents were permitted to vote in any party’s primary, although sometimes they had to join that party at the primary polling place immediately prior to voting.

Among the open primary states, 43 Republicans voted in favor of HR 2775, which was only 31.9% of all Republicans from those states who voted on the bill.

Among the semi-closed primary states, 23 Republicans voted “yes”, which was 59.0% of all Republicans from those states who voted on the bill.

Among the top-two primary states, 13 Republicans voted “yes”, which was 54.2% of all Republicans from those states who voted on the bill.

Finally, among the closed primary states, 35 Republicans voted “yes”, which was 44.9% of all Republicans from those states who voted on the bill.

States with open Republican primaries are Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin. States with semi-closed Republican primaries are Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming. States with top-two primaries are California, Louisiana, and Washington. States with closed Republican primaries are Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota. The states not named have no Republicans in Congress: Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

On October 17, the Virginia Libertarian Party filed this brief with the U.S. Supreme Court. The case is Libertarian Party of Virginia v Judd, 13-231. The issue is Virginia’s ban on out-of-state petitioners. The state wants the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate the law. The party’s brief argues that the lower courts were correct to invalidate the law.

The next step is that the U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether to hear Virginia’s appeal. If the Court declines, then the case is over and the state can no longer enforce the ban.