State GOP Executive Committee Unanimously Backs Closed Primaries

House Bill 541, sponsored in this year's legislative regular session by Rep. Ernie Yarbrough (R-Trinity), would have limited participation in primary elections to only those registered with a political party.

It died on the last day of the session, but now the Alabama Republican Party Executive Committee wants to see it resurrected in next year's session.

During this past weekend's GOP State Executive Committee meeting in Montgomery, State Auditor Andrew Sorrell voiced strong support for reconsideration of the bill during this past weekend's Summer Meeting at the Renaissance Hotel & Spa in Montgomery.

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“Political parties are by nature exclusionary. You know the Republican Party - we don’t have a Constitution Party, we don’t have libertarians, we don’t have Democrats in the Republican Party,” Sorrell told the large crowd. “We have Republicans.”

Sorrell is one of several Republicans who claim the primaries need to be closed to prevent non Republicans from influencing who the party's nominees would be in elections. The same argument was put forth during legislative debate.

Legislators opposed to the proposed bill voiced concern that closed primaries would eliminate conservative independent voters from voting in the primaries.

The bill passed the House and was being debated in the Senate when lawmakers in the upper chamber learned the House had adjourned sine die on the last day of the session. Because there had been a minor change to the bill in the upper chamber, it would have needed to go back to the house for concurrence. Because the House had adjourned, the bill died.

During legislative debate, Democrats in both chambers characterized closed primaries as voter suppression. They added that closed primaries will further erode voter participation in a state that already has embarrassingly low voter turnout rates.

The 300+ member GOP committee backed closed primaries being added to this fall's party platform on a unanimous voice vote.