This story was originally published by the Louisiana Illuminator.
Louisiana is barreling toward a remake of its election process.
Gov. Jeff Landry is pushing lawmakers to support a new partisan primary system for federal, state and judicial elections in a special session that ends Tuesday.
The Louisiana House of Representatives voted 64-40 for a closed state primary process in which only registered Democratic and Republican voters might participate. The Senate will take up the same proposal Thursday and could give its full approval Friday.
A few arguments used to sell this election plan have not been straightforward, however. The following three talking points are confusing or lack context:
1. Most states use a primary process like the one Landry has proposed
Louisiana might be the only state in the country with a “jungle” primary, but the election process Landry is pushing is more restrictive and more partisan than what most other states use.
In Louisiana’s “jungle” primary, every candidate runs against each other on the same ballot, regardless of their party affiliation. If one candidate gets more than 50% of the vote, the person wins the election outright. If no one exceeds 50%, the two candidates with the most votes proceed to a runoff election, regardless of their party affiliation. The process is essentially nonpartisan.
What Landry is pushing would make it important for both candidates and voters to be Democrats or Republicans.
Under the governor’s proposal, the Democrats and Republicans would likely be the only two parties who could run primary elections. They would be able to restrict participation in those primary contests to only Democratic registered voters and Republican registered voters, respectively.
Voters not registered with a party, often called independents, would not be able to participate in primary elections anymore unless Republicans or Democrats give them permission to do so. Under no circumstances could registered Republicans or Democrats vote in each other’s primaries.
While most other states have partisan primaries — with separate Democratic and Republican contests — most don’t limit participation in those elections to only Democratic and Republican voters.
Only eight states — Delaware, New Mexico, Florida, New York, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Wyoming — completely close primaries to just Democratic and Republican voters, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Nine states — Connecticut, Maryland, South Dakota, West Virginia, Idaho, Oklahoma, Utah, Kansas and Oregon — allow the Democratic and Republican parties to choose whether voters who aren’t registered with a party participate in their primary contests.
The remaining 32 states have a more open system than what Landry has proposed.
Other states’ primaries rules include letting people switch parties on election day so they can participate in another party’s primary or at least allowing voters not affiliated with Republicans or Democrats to participate in whichever primary they want.
The most popular system in the country, used by 16 states, is an open primary. In this process, states generally don’t let anyone register with a party, so all voters are technically unaffiliated. People choose whether to vote in the Democratic or Republican primary contests when they go to the polls, but they aren’t forced to join a party to do so.
“All of our Southern states are succeeding. They have a closed primary system,” Landry told lawmakers Monday when pushing for closed primaries.
This is false. Only three Southern states — Florida, Kentucky and Maryland — have a system like Landry is pushing.
Southern states that conservatives have said Louisiana should emulate — including Texas, Tennessee and South Carolina — are open primary states that allow for a wider range of voter participation.
2. Louisiana used a system like this for federal elections in the 2000s
In his speech Monday, Landry claimed Louisiana had already experimented with the closed primary system he supports.
“We’ve tested this system before and it works,” he said.
The governor went on to say closed primaries were effective because they had elected U.S. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, state Treasurer John Fleming and Landry himself to Congress in 2008 and 2010.
But Landry’s statements about those old elections are not true. The system he is proposing is not the same one used during the 2008 and 2010 federal election cycles.
Louisiana did use a closed primary system for its congressional elections, but there were more rounds of voting.
In those cycles, candidates had to initially run in a Democratic or Republican primary. But if no one received more than 50% of the vote, the two candidates with the most votes had to face each other in a Democratic or Republican runoff before advancing to the general election.
Under Landry’s current proposal, there would be no Democratic or Republican primary runoff election. The candidate with the most votes in the initial Democratic or Republican primary contest would automatically move on to the general election.
Landry’s system could also feature more than two candidates in the general election because candidates not affiliated with a political party would be able to get on the general election ballot. A person would also only have to receive the most votes – not necessarily 50% or more – to win the primary and general election.
This means a candidate could take office without ever receiving over 50% of the vote in any election.
The same scenario is not possible under Louisiana’s current “jungle” primary process. Candidates can only win a race by receiving 50% or more of the primary vote or a runoff. When a runoff is necessary, there are only be two candidates on the ballot.
3. This is how we elected Donald Trump and Joe Biden president
The one time Louisiana doesn’t use a jungle primary is during presidential contests. In those cycles, Louisiana holds closed primaries, where only registered Democrats can vote in the Democratic presidential primary and only registered Republicans can vote in the Republican primary.
But Louisiana isn’t very involved in picking the Republican and Democratic presidential nominees. By the time the state is holding its primaries, the field of candidates has usually been whittled down to mostly one person on each side.
For example, Louisiana won’t have its 2024 presidential primary elections until March 23, almost three weeks after “Super Tuesday” on March 5, when the largest number of states have their presidential primary contests.
Most states who go early in the presidential primary process — and therefore have the most control over the candidates picked — also don’t have closed primary processes like Landry has proposed.
In Iowa, which held its caucuses Monday, voters can decide on the day they take place whether they are going to participate in the Democratic or Republican contest for president.
New Hampshire, which holds its presidential primary Tuesday, allows voters who aren’t registered with the Democratic or Republican party to choose to vote in either contest.
South Carolina holds its Democratic primary Feb. 3 and Republican primary Feb. 24. Voters there don’t register with a political party at all and can choose whether to participate in either contest.
Of the early presidential nominating states, only Nevada has a closed primary process. It will hold a Democratic primary and Republican caucus Feb. 6. Voters have to be registered Republicans or Democrats to participate in their primary contests, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.