[Vision2020] US Supreme Court: Closed Primaries Legal!!!!!!

[Tbertruss@aol.com]

Tom et. al.

According to the document at the link below, the US Supreme Court ruled that it is legal for a party as a private organization to exclude non-members from voting in their primary election.  If I understand correctly, California once had a closed primary system by law, then in 1996 they passed Proposition 198 to enforce on open primary system.  This was challenged and the US Supreme court ruled you cannot by law force a political party to have an open primary.  This overturned Prop 198 and now California has a modified version of a closed primary system.  California by law can exclude crossover primary voting.

The document below offers some solutions to the problems raised by closed primaries.  It is a good read for an in depth look at this issue.  If you have the time!

However, here in Idaho, if Linda Pall is correct, it is legal to cross party lines in a primary, at least this is what I understood her meaning to be.  

I understand the arguments on both sides of this issue, but tend to side with the open primary system.  However, this is a complex issue that I do not think easily resolves itself one way or the other without legal and moral difficulties.

Ted Moffett

This is a 51 page document:

http://216.239.53.104/search?q=cache:ixuY43SJzqAJ:publicpolicy.pepperdine.edu/academics/mpp/capstone/primary.pdf+legality+voting+crossing+party+line+primary&hl=en