Party primaries are moving closer to becoming a thing of the past in Mississippi as studies continue on how the state conducts its elections, Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann said.
“Closed primaries have been unanimously rejected,” Hosemann told the Vicksburg Rotary Club in response to a question about an ongoing elections review begun in September by his office. “So, I think you’ll see the committee recommend either an open primary or a Louisiana-style system.”
A 52-person panel conducting the study is looking at alternatives to voting and elections practices. Currently, voters in Mississippi don’t register by party but must choose one party’s ballot in a primary election. They may not cross over and vote in the other party’s runoff once the choice is made.
Hosemann said committee members have focused on making voters themselves the main beneficiary of any new system.
“In the first discussions, someone said, ‘Are we building a voting system for the voter or the party?’,” Hosemann said. “The party was not the answer. So, the voting system should be built for the voter.”
He expected the group to finish its report by year’s end, in time for the 2015 Legislature to start its next regular session.
Louisiana’s open primary system — referred to as a “jungle primary” — features an initial election where all candidates run on the same ballot regardless of party. The top two advance to a runoff unless someone wins a majority the first time.
Major party leaders in the state have voiced concerns about how changes would affect the strength of each’s party banner. Current law in Mississippi doesn’t allow for runoffs in regular cycle local races, even though candidates may qualify as independents and run in a general election against Democratic and Republican party nominees — which can lessen the chances the winner has a majority of the vote.
Hosemann has said he’d push state lawmakers to remove voters birthdays from poll books since voters must now show photo identification before voting. Ten types of photo IDs are accepted at the polls, most of which are common forms of ID carried by most people.
The second-term Secretary of State and Vicksburg native credited solutions such as providing transportation to the polls and aggressive TV advertising for saving the state from legal challenges unlike a handful of states.
“North Carolina is spending tens of millions on lawyers,” Hosemann said. “We spent nothing. It’s quite an accomplishment. A lot of preparation went into that.”
Hosemann has said the panel would also examine state law that says voters can be challenged if poll watchers suspect party nominees wouldn’t be supported. The law has been declared unenforceable.