The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a Republican Party appeal seeking to close Montana’s primary elections in June, meaning any registered voter will be able to select a GOP ballot. The Montana Republican Party and eight central county committees want to require primary voters to register as Republicans before being allowed to participate in the June 7 elections. Two lower courts had denied their request for an emergency injunction, resulting in the long-shot appeal to the nation’s high court. The court takes up very few petitions it receives, but in this case, Justice Anthony Kennedy had requested more information about the issue. That had given GOP attorney Matthew Monforton a glimmer of hope that the court would intervene, but it denied the appeal without comment a day after all the arguments had been filed. “We’re going to just continue on and seek relief with regard to crossover voting in the 2018 primaries,” Monforton said.
The Republican plaintiffs’ lawsuit, which is still pending in a lower court, argues the system violates their First Amendment right to associate. They contend the state’s open-primary system allows Democratic, independent or third-party voters to affect the outcome of their elections and Republican candidates must alter their message to appeal to those crossover voters.
Senate Majority Leader Matthew Rosendale and House Majority Leader Keith Regier testified last year that a closed-primary system would help conservative Republicans keep party moderates out of the Legislature.
Attorneys for the state have argued that the Republican plaintiffs have failed to provide evidence of their claims of crossover voting and the century-old primary system should not be changed based on the party’s assumptions that it happens.
Full Article: Supreme Court rejects appeal; Montana primaries will stay open | Government & Politics | billingsgazette.com.