Court ruling upholds South Carolina’s open primaries

IndependentVoting.org applauds a decision this week that dismissed a lawsuit by the Greenville Republican Party seeking to close South Carolina’s system of open primary voting. After the state party withdrew from the case, the Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit decided that the Greenville Republicans did not have standing. According to IndependentVoting.org—a national association of independent voters and defender of South Carolina’s open primaries—-in one-party states such as South Carolina and Mississippi the primary of the dominant Republican Party can be the only opportunity African Americans have to cast an effective vote to protect their interests.