Independent voters need to be aware of the mounting attacks -- and increasing successes -- regarding open primary legislation that might include the 40% of Americans who are not allowed to vote in state primary elections.
“The common interest between African American and independent
voters is becoming pivotal in the next wave of voting rights struggles
in America.”- Jacqueline Salit
For Immediate Release from independentvoting.org: August 21, 2013
Contact: Sarah Lyons / 212-962-1824
via email 8/26/13
IndependentVoting.org,
a national association of independent voters and a defender of South
Carolina’s open primary system, hailed a federal court judge’s ruling in
Spartanburg today that the Greenville Republican Party did not have
standing to sue to close the South Carolina primaries. In June, the
State Republican Party withdrew from the lawsuit leaving the Greenville
GOP as the sole plaintiff in the case which has been pending since 2010.
IndependentVoting.org
and a coalition of defendant/intervenors argued that without the state
Republican Party’s involvement, the Greenville plaintiffs did not have
standing. Judge Mary G. Lewis agreed and granted the motion to dismiss.
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Harry Kresky, Esq., who appeared with local counsel Fletcher N. Smith, argued
the standing issue on behalf of the intervenors and said, “Today’s
ruling was a setback for the Greenville faction of the South Carolina
Republican Party which hoped to use the court to strengthen its
influence in the state party. The voters would have paid a price.”
Jacqueline Salit, president of IndependentVoting.org which assembled the
defendant/intervenor coalition said, “Political crossfire inside the
Republican Party gave rise to this lawsuit but African American and
independent voters would have been the big losers if the primaries had
been closed as a result.”
State
Representative Joe Neal, part of the defendant/intervenor coalition
added, “Today the South Carolina federal court has upheld the rights of
voters in South Carolina, especially the minority community, to free and
unfettered access to the polls.”
Salit
added “The common interest between African American and independent
voters is becoming pivotal in the next wave of voting rights struggles
in America.”
In
addition to IndependentVoting.org, the coalition of
defendant/intervenors included: thirteen members of the South Carolina
Black Legislative Caucus, the South Carolina Independence Party, the
Progressive Network, the Constitution Party and the Columbia Tea Party.
“South
Carolinians have always been fiercely independent. As an intervenor, I
am proud that we stopped the Republican Party from closing our state's
primary elections,” stated Wayne Griffin chair of the South Carolina
Independence Party.
