AL: Major Party Leaders Conspire to Close Primaries,

From the Gadsden Times:

Joe Turnham, Alabama’s Democratic Party chairman, and House Minority Leader Mike Hubbard, the GOP chairman, have had preliminary discussions about revisions to election laws and primary rules. They plan to talk again after the general election in November to see if they can formulate a plan both parties can sign off on. . . .

Turnham and Hubbard are talking about the one step that would put a stop to crossover voting — party registration, already required by 29 states and the District of Columbia. That would be a significant change in Alabama where primaries often have served as de facto general elections, especially in local races.

With party registration, Democrats and Republicans could only vote in their respective primaries and runoffs. Voters who don’t choose a party affiliation — there would have to be an “independent” category — would be left out of primaries and runoffs and could only vote in general or nonpartisan elections. . . .

The party registration idea is worth exploring. It would restore primaries to their intended purpose — a method by which parties choose general election candidates — and could invigorate the parties in this state by making voters take them more seriously. It also would allow those who brag about “not holding allegiance to any party” to put that on record, officially. [Emphasis added.]

Closed primaries are not going to make voters take the parties more seriously. The reason for this is simple: they are a joke, sometimes pathetic, sometimes sad, sometimes even funny, but a joke nonetheless. Of course, it seemingly never occurs to Republicans and Democrats and their mouthpieces in the media that one might do away with the primary system altogether. Why should all taxpayers have to foot the bill for the Democrats and Republicans to make their own internal party decisions?