Should SC voters have the right to register with a party? GOP ballot asks that question
Voters who pull a Republican ballot in Tuesday’s primary will be asked whether voters should be able to register with a political party.
The proposition is one of two advisory questions Republican voters will weigh in on.
Republican primary voters will be asked if they “support giving voters the right to register with the political party of their choice.”
In South Carolina, people don’t register with a party when they register to vote. Instead, they can choose which party’s primary they want to cast a ballot in, regardless of whether they identify with that party or support its agenda. For example, people who voted in the February Democratic presidential primary may choose to vote in the Republican primary on Tuesday.
The open primary process, advocates of it say, gives S.C. voters more opportunities to influence who their representatives will be. And because of gerrymandering, political parties often dominate districts, leading to little competition from an opposing party. In those districts, voters often have only one political party to choose from for representation, so closing primaries could take away some voters’ say in an election.
The results of an advisory question, which is not legally binding and essentially serves as a survey, can be used to influence decision makers.
However, any changes to allow or require party registration, limit who can vote in a primary, or define how many times a candidate may appear on the ballot would require a change in state law, said Chris Whitmire, spokesman for the SC Election Commission.
The advisory questions are an effort to identify party faithful.
“Especially in this time where you see fewer and fewer people nationally identifying as Republican, I think the party is kind of trying to shore up its strength. That’s what both of the questions are about, protecting itself,” said Scott Huffmon, a political science professor at Winthrop University.
Not all states have open primaries.
Some states have closed primaries that require party registration ahead of contests. Some states allow voters to pick a ballot the day of the primary election and that becomes their party for the cycle. And unlike in South Carolina, where the record of the elections a voter participates in is public, some states allow voters to pick a primary ballot while keeping that choice secret.
Republican Party officials say the ultimate goal isn’t to close the primary, but rather simply to gauge the desire of people wanting to affiliate with a political party. If party registration is in place, it would help quantify how many people and how often people change their affiliations or crossover in primaries.
SC GOP spokesperson Claire Robinson said there is no consensus within the party about whether to close the primaries.
“There are lots of opinions in our party about closing primaries, and the varying ways you can do that, but the one thing we all agree on is the current system in South Carolina is the worst way,” Robinson said in an email.
SC GOP Chairman Drew McKissick argued parties are for people with shared values to come together to nominate candidates for office to represent.
“We don’t register by party in South Carolina,” McKissick said. “Therefore, you don’t have the ability to make sure the people who affiliate with your party are actually the people who can have the most influence over your candidates.”
Despite efforts over the years on the part of some GOP activists to close primaries, saying that open primaries produce candidates that don’t reflect the party’s values, party officials maintain that they are not advocating to close the primary. They say registration allows parties to better reach out and engage with voters.
Democratic Party officials said the current primary system works as is.
“The current primary system gives S.C. voters far more freedom and we also have a much better snapshot of where voters are based on the political climate and the issues of the day instead of based on a one-time party registration that they may or may not change,” said Trav Robertson, the SCDP chairman.
The discussion of closing primaries in the state, where Republicans control both chambers of the state legislature and all statewide offices, has increased since the Obama era, Winthrop’s Huffmon said.
“Historically, dominant parties want closed primaries to protect themselves so slowly you don’t have the growth of the other party at your expense,” Huffmon said.
Republicans have dominated state politics for years. The last Democrat to serve statewide in South Carolina was Jim Rex, a former state education superintendent who was elected in 2006 to a four-year term.
Recent crossovers
Do Republicans have much to worry about when it comes to people crossover voting?
Huffmon said there are no significant ideological differences in the makeup of people who vote in a closed primary and those who vote in an open primary state.
Crossover voting may have an impact during a very contested presidential primary on one side and no presidential primary on the other where there may be strategic voting, but it doesn’t sway the national outcome, Huffmon said.
“It’s more likely to jigger around the second and third tier candidates,” Huffmon said. “The front runners are the front runners, nearly always.”
“Some people do crossover but the massive impact on an election never materializes,” Huffmon added.
Leading up to the Democratic presidential primary in February, when Republicans opted not to hold their own primary, there were TEA Party activists who called on Republicans to participate in the Democratic primary and vote for Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders. Sanders was believed to have been a weaker candidate against President Donald Trump in the general election.
Ultimately, it is not known how much effect TEA Party activists had on the Democratic primary, as former Vice President Joe Biden easily won the South Carolina primary.
The effort to meddle in the Democratic presidential primary was not endorsed by Republican leadership.
“It’s nothing that I signed off on. I couldn’t look at anyone on that side of street and encourage anyone to vote for them,” McKissick said.
When Tea Party activists called for Operation Chaos, there was then an effort by state Sen. Marlon Kimpson, D-Charleston, to pass legislation that would ensure primary voters to be locked into the Democratic Party for four years.
A bill in the state House, still in committee, calls for allowing people to vote in a party’s primary only if they’re registered with that party or are a registered independent.
However, there are fears that requiring party registration could lead to some people not having a say of who represents them because not all seats are competitive in the general election. In 2018, 69 out of the 124 state House seats only had one candidate in the general election.
The idea of changing how voters identify themselves raises objections from Democratic officials.
“It is ironic that the Republican Party that claims to love freedom and democracy is once again supporting limitations to the most basic element of our democracy — voting,” South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Trav Robertson said.
Fusion voting
The other GOP advisory question deals with fusion voting, which is a relatively new phenomenon in the state, McKissick said. Candidates have the ability to get onto the ballot multiple times under different parties and have their votes tallied together.
The question reads: “Should candidates for public office be limited to having their names listed only once on a ballot for any office in each general election (rather than current law, which allows their name to appear multiple times by representing multiple political parties for the same office)?”
The practice of a person having his or her name listed multiple times on a ballot and having the votes combined as a fusion candidate has become more common over the last eight to 10 years, Whitmire said.
In 2018, 15 Democratic candidates state House seats or statewide offices also ran as the nominee for the Working Families Party.
Four Democratic candidates won their elections. Two of those Democrats had Republican opponents, but still received more votes on the Democratic line.
There were no Republicans in 2018 whose name appeared multiple times for the same office.
“The point there is to get back to where everyone thought we were prior to a couple of cycles ago,” McKissick said. “You’re either representing a political party, and you could represent one, or you run as a petition candidate.”
