MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The House Committee on Ethics and Campaign Finance on Tuesday approved a bill to close Alabama’s primary elections to voters registered by party.
House Bill 541, introduced last week by Rep. Ernie Yarbrough, R-Trinity, sets up a closed primary election system. Under the bill, Alabamians would choose their political party affiliation when they register to vote. If they don’t want to register with a political party, voters can remain “unaffiliated,” but couldn’t vote in primaries.
Voters could change their chosen political party as many times as they would like between elections, up until 60 days before an election. This “blackout window” exists so the secretary of state can provide the list of registered voters to county probate judges – the chief election officers in Alabama’s 67 counties – within the legally mandated period before an election, Yarbrough said.
Thirteen states – including Tennessee, Kentucky and Florida – have fully closed primary elections.
Voters would still not be able to change parties between the primary and any related runoff elections, as is the case under current law.
Yarbrough said he introduced the bill to ensure that primaries help to elect the candidate who most reflects a party’s platform and to curb “crossover voting.”
“I think it gives the most fair and honest chance of structural integrity to reinforce that party primaries are for the purpose of those parties choosing their nominees and their local and state executive committee members,” Yarbrough said during the committee meeting.
Yabrough defined crossover voting as Democrats choosing to vote in the Republican primary for the candidate they view as weaker in an effort to give a Democrat a better chance of winning the general election.
Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, disagreed that the bill would change much about crossover voting and argued that it would disenfranchise voters.
“Unfortunately, a lot of people who want to participate in picking the candidate they vote for in November also want to participate in that process in the primary because they want to make sure the candidate that they support is somebody they can vote for in the general,” England said Tuesday. “But as you told me last week, if you don’t declare a party, you can’t vote, so again, I personally believe this is a party fight that the rest of us don’t want anything to do with.”
The state Republican party and its newly elected chair Rep. Scott Stadthagen, R-Hartselle, previously announced the bill as “the party’s top legislative priority this year.”
The bill now awaits a vote on the House floor.
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