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“When it comes to passing conservative policies, South Carolina is always dead last among Republican states. Open primaries are a major contributor to that.”

For the second time this year, a bill requiring closed state primary elections has dropped in the South Carolina House of Representatives. The bill – H. 5183 – is currently residing in the chamber’s judiciary committee, where it faces an uncertain future.

This latest proposal, sponsored by state representative Mike Burns, fixes a flaw in a previously introduced version.

“It’s very similar to 3310,” explained state representative Jordan Pace, referencing a previous closed primary bill. “It’s virtually the same, with the exception of when you can register or affiliate for 2026 – and only in 2026 – the first time that a voter votes in a primary, they can sign the affiliation form when they vote.”

Pace is chairman of the S.C. Freedom Caucus, a group of conservative lawmakers who have been working for years to close partisan primary elections in the Palmetto State. Their objective? Limiting Democrat influence/interference in the selection of GOP representatives.

Under the previous version of the bill, critics expressed concern that some voters might not have time to qualify to cast their ballots in the upcoming Democratic and Republican primary elections on June 9, 2026.

Current election law provides for an open primary. Any registered voter can request the partisan ballot of their choice on primary day (although they must pick one party or the other; they cannot vote for both).

For Pace and his fellow conservatives, that’s a big problem.

“Right now we have Democrats crossing over and voting in Republican primaries,” Pace explained. “And in some cases, we have Republicans crossing over to vote in Democrat primaries in a few spots around the state. There’s been like four ballot questions over the last decade on primary voting questions. And they all have come back with eighty percent or so saying, ‘crossing over into the other party’s primary is not what we want’. That’s what November (the general election) is for. It’s not what the primaries are for.”