Tennessee General Assembly: 111th session underway in 2019

Joel Ebert | The Tennessean

A bill requiring Tennessee voters to declare their party affiliation in order to vote in a primary election made its way through its first committee on Wednesday.

The legislation, HB 1273 and SB 1500, would force voters to choose between being registered as a Democrat, Republican, unaffiliated with a statewide party or other in order to cast a primary ballot.

If a voter chooses unaffiliated, they would not be able to vote in any primary elections.

Although Gov. Bill Lee and former Gov. Bill Haslam, both Republicans, have expressed opposition to the idea, the House Elections and Campaign Finance Subcommittee approved the measure.

While presenting the bill to the committee, Rep. Andy Holt, R-Dresden, noted the legislation comes after the Tennessee Republican Party's state executive committee approved a resolution in December calling for closed primaries.

The bill does not apply to general elections.

File / Dave Cardaciotto / For The Tennessean

Just nine states have fully closed primaries, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Seven states have partially closed primaries, which allows parties to decide whether to let unaffiliated voters to cast a ballot.

Holt's bill was met with some opposition from Democrats and Republicans on the committee.

Rep. John Crawford, R-Kingsport, argued the legislation would disenfranchise independent voters.

"You're taking the right for who they can vote for as an independent voter away from them," he said.

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Holt said the current primary voting system is based on an honor system but some suspect there have been Democrats voting in Republican primaries and vice versa in order to influence the election.

"For us to say we're limiting a person with this legislation is inaccurate," he said. "The current state law already limits primary elections to members of the primary caucus."

At one point, Crawford said the legislation would put "party over people." Holt disagreed.

Rep. Yusuf Hakeem, D-Chattanooga, said he thought the bill was "like a degree of suppression" because only one party — the Republicans — asked for the legislation.

The legislation, which is sponsored by in the Senate by Sen. Joey Hensley, R-Hohenwald, was approved on a voice vote and sent to the House Local Committee.

Michael Schwab - USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee, The Tennessean

Meanwhile, the elections subcommittee took actions on several other measures including rejecting a proposal from Rep. Vincent Dixie, D-Nashville, that would only require those voting with an absentee ballot to list the last four digits of their Social Security number.

Elections coordinator Mark Goins answered questions about the bill but offered no opposition to it before the panel rejected the legislation. The Senate sponsor of the bill is Rep. Ferrell Haile, R-Gallatin.

The committee also quickly approved two bills from Rep. Johnny Shaw, D-Bolivar, including HB 762 and SB 1258, which would prohibit a candidate who lost in a primary election to run as a write-in candidate in the general election.

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