Missouri legislators are pushing for a new law that could change the way people vote in Missouri.
House Bill 26 proposes to change Missouri elections from open primaries to closed primaries. Currently, the state’s primaries are open, which means voters can cast their ballots in primaries for candidates regardless of their party registration.
“The proposal to go to a closed primary is that it would require voters to register by party,” said Peverill Squire, a political science professor at the University of Missouri. “You would have to register as either a Republican or Democrat to be able to participate in that party’s primaries.”
HB26 passed through perfection on March 27 and was referred to the Fiscal Review Committee. Fiscal review is a standard process for all bills to determine if there is sufficient funding or a financial impact to local or state governments.
Rep. Jered Taylor, R-Republic, is optimistic about the progress of the bill.
Taylor said that some representatives want some questions regarding timeframe and implementation answered before before the bill is read for the third and final time on the House floor.
The bill aims to combat strategic voting. Strategic voting occurs when voters purposefully cast their ballots to weaker candidates in other parties. Squire does not believe it has been a problem in the state.
Taylor disagreed.
“We’ve seen time and time again Republicans and Democrats try to influence the primary to pick the weaker candidate against their candidate in order to win an election in the general election,” he said.
Taylor likened the proposal to business practices, “The employees of a competitive company shouldn’t be picking the CEO of another company.”
If the bill becomes law, it would cause a significant change in the way elections impact voters.
“It would change the way we go about registering to vote and it would require people to publicly identify themselves as party backers in a way they’re not required to do now,” Squire said.
Republicans and Democrats could disallow independents and other parties from voting in their primaries, significantly impacting areas where there are not third-party candidates or candidates from only one party. This would mean some voters would not be able to cast their ballots until the general election.
“I don’t believe Republicans should be picking Democrat candidates, I don’t think Democrats should be picking Republican candidates,” Taylor said.