SC Republicans sue state to end open primary elections

The South Carolina Republican Party has filed a lawsuit in a bid to force the state’s open primary elections to close as part of a long-running push to restrict GOP contests to only registered Republican voters.

The Palmetto State currently does not require registration by party and allows voters to participate in either of the state’s primary contests regardless of their partisan affiliation. Voters can choose to participate in one but not both.

In the new lawsuit, filed July 6, the South Carolina GOP argues the open-primary model violates its First Amendment rights to free association and the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment by compelling the party to open its primaries to those who are not affiliated with it and “do not subscribe to the party’s principles.”

“An open primary system permits voters who have not joined the Republican Party to influence the Party’s most important associational act: choosing its nominee, thus depriving the Party of the fundamental right of association and the fundamental right to govern its own affairs,” lawyers wrote on behalf of the party.

The challenge asks a federal judge to force the South Carolina Election Commission to comply with a new state party rule that limits Republican primary participation to only GOP voters.

The new rules, which also include a requirement that Republican candidates for office be registered with the party for at least 90 days or have participated in at least two of the past three statewide caucus primaries in any state, was ratified during the state party convention last month.

“South Carolina Republican[s] are declaring our independence from a system that forces us to allow Democrats to participate in choosing our nominees,” Drew McKissick, chair of the South Carolina Republican Party, said in a statement Wednesday, declaring it was “time for change.”

The South Carolina Election Commission declined to comment.

Republican state lawmakers have put forward legislation that would close the state’s primaries, but that effort has repeatedly stalled in the House.

The defendants in the lawsuit, which include the election commission’s chair, Robert Bolchoz, and its members, have yet to file a response in court.