Freedom votes: Don’t close South Carolina’s primary elections

By: Paul Hyde

Outlets: South Carolina Daily Gazette

Published: January 28, 2026

Words: 788

Last Updated: 3 weeks, 3 days ago

Some bad ideas are perennial.

Take, for instance, the misguided notion of closing South Carolina’s free and open primary elections.

Closed-primary proposals show up at the Statehouse as regularly as Palmetto bugs tumbling from the trees every spring.

It’s not a pleasant sight.

Closed primaries generally require voters to register with a specific party to vote in that party’s primary.

But primary elections are funded by all taxpayers. They should remain free and open to …

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