A Federal Appeals court has determined that a portion of an election law in Virginia requiring Democratic and Republican primary elections to be open to all voters is unconstitutional. According to the 4th U.S. Circuit Appeals panel, a political party has the right to restrict voting to its members when an incumbent has chosen a primary election to secure nomination for another term.
The case began state Sen. Steve Martin, a Republican, said he wanted to be nominated in a primary election. The Chesterfield County Republican Party brought the case, because under state law, an incumbent has the right to decide whether he wants to seek his party’s nomination through a primary, a convention or a caucus.
The Chesterfield Republicans successfully argued that Martin’s decision forced them to hold an open primary – and that having to allow Democrats to the polls would violate their rights to freedom of association.
The judges, however, rejected an argument that open primaries are unconstitutional in all circumstances, basically stating the matter was up to the political parties themselves as their right to free association. However, in dicta, the judges stated that if the party chooses to hold a primary for a nonimcumbent, then participation must be open to all Virginians.
The decision is a little conflicted but in the substantive matter it addressed, whether Martin’s and the Republican party’s rights would be violated by letting Democrats vote in the primary, the court made the right decision. Readers might keep in mind that according to the pros, significant cross-over voting in Virginia in the last U.S. Senate election probably did help party-switcher Jim Webb take the Senate seat from the Republicans. Under the Federal court’s ruling, it appears that Webb will now be protected from the same thing happening to him in his next primary.
October 2nd, 2007 at 12:00 am
As a supporter of the Open Primary I think there are a lot of issues that get missed in the discussion and one that certainly should be mentioned in the Virginia case is the past history of parties using their rights of association to deny African American citizens the right to vote. Eventually if we continue to allow parties to choose their own members rather than simply being an institutional tool to make it easier for voters to understand their choices, we will go back to the days when parties attempt to exclude members of unpopular minority groups from membership and in that way limit their influence on the system. JMO!