Significant Victory for Open Primaries and Voting Rights in South Carolina for Independents and African American Voters

Independents Are Growing in Number and Stature

By John Opdycke on 08/27/2013 in INV

On steps of the Donald S. Russell Federal courthouse in Spartanburg, SC (left to right): Jackie Salit, President of IndependentVoting.org; South Carolina Independence Party chair Wayne Griffin; local counsel Fletcher Smith, and IndependentVoting.org general counsel Harry Kresky.

...Last Wednesday, IndependentVoting.org president Jackie Salit and general counsel Harry Kresky traveled to South Carolina to defend open primaries from the Greenville County Republican Party, which has been attempting to force the state to enact closed primaries since 2010. After hearing arguments from both sides, Federal Judge Mary Lewis sided with the defendants and dismissed the case – a significant victory for open primaries advocates.

IndependentVoting.org issued a press release in the wake of the ruling, stating: “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.”...

Read Opdycke's full article here

Read more about IndependentVoting.org's campaign for open primaries here