Senate Committee votes to ‘close’ primary elections 

By Stephen Baldwin, RealWV

Primary elections can either be “open” or “closed” to independent voters who do not declare allegiance to a single political party. 

Historically, West Virginia has been an “open” state. That means when an independent voter walked into a voting booth during a primary election, they were given a choice. They could choose one ballot from any one political party, and cast their votes for all the races on the ticket. 

That will no longer be the case for the more than 300,000 unaffiliated, independent voters in West Virginia. 

Starting in 2026, the WV Republican Party will “close” their primaries and only allow registered Republicans to vote using the Republican ballot. State law currently allows political parties to choose whether their primaries are open or closed. There are five recognized political parties–Republican, Democratic, Libertarian, Mountain, and Constitutional. All but the Republicans maintain an “open” primary. 

Sen. Eric Tarr (R, Putnam) led the charge to close the Republican primary, according to reporting by Steven Allen Adams. Now, he’s sponsoring SB 564 which would require that all primary elections for all political parties in West Virginia be closed. 

Committee counsel summarized the bill for senators by saying, “If you are an independent or an unaffiliated voter, you can’t vote a party ballot. That’s the bill.”

Tarr testified before the committee on Tuesday, answering questions from his colleagues about the motivations behind the bill. 

“We went from a one-party system on the Democrat side, and now it’s nearly a one-party system nearly to the Republican side,” Tarr explained. “One of the things that’s been clear in both circumstances is both parties tend to get water down a bit. One reason is because primary voters come in and water down primary elections.”

“What this bill intends to do is (answer the question), ‘What party do you align with?’” he continued.  “The second thing this attempts to address is a concerted effort to mess with a party’s primary election. We’ve seen this happen in elections past.”

Tarr said he believed Democrats switched to independent voters in the 2020 election to oppose Sen. Sue Cline. “Those are very disingenuous tactics in elections. The voters deserve more clarity. We have the opportunity to fix that when the parties may not.”

The Senate Government Organization Committee includes 13 Republicans and 1 Democrat. 

After Sen. Jack David Woodrum moved that the bill pass and be referred for further consideration to the Judiciary Committee, the committee voted to approve the motion. 

Stay tuned to RealWV for updates on SB 564.