Understanding Proposals to Change South Carolina Primaries

Big changes could be coming to South Carolina's primary voting system and the way you register to vote. Learn about the five new bills that could impact how SC residents vote in primaries, including closed primary proposals and ranked-choice voting options. Today we break down the proposed changes to SC's primary voting system. This episode explores how these proposals compare to other states' systems and what they could mean for SC voters.

Bills:

• https://www.scstatehouse.gov/sess126_2025-2026/bills/3589.htm

• https://www.scstatehouse.gov/sess126_2025-2026/bills/3310.htm

• https://www.scstatehouse.gov/sess126_2025-2026/bills/3396.htm

• https://www.scstatehouse.gov/sess126_2025-2026/bills/3643.htm

• https://www.scstatehouse.gov/billsearch.php?billnumbers=109

National Conference of State Legislatures primary elections types:
https://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/state-primary-election-types

Transcript

Katy Smith:
On this podcast, Simple Civic: Greenville County, we are all about civic engagement, which includes voting, especially in the primaries, when just a small percentage of South Carolina's registered voters participate, but when many of the important decisions on who represents you are made. Currently, there are at least five bills filed in the South Carolina House of Representatives and Senate related to primary voting. I'm Katy Smith with Greater Good Greenville, and on this episode of Simple Civics: Greenville County, we start a mini-series on policies and statutes related to primary voting, what's proposed, and how it compares to other states. I'll have a brief conversation about it today with our producer, Nathaniel DeSantis. Then for the next two episodes after this one, you'll hear from a legal expert on election law about what potential changes mean and how they work elsewhere. So please be sure to listen next week and give us a follow on your favorite podcast app so you don't miss out.

Nathaniel DeSantis:
We have spent a lot of time talking about primaries on this podcast, from discussing the general importance of voting in the statewide primary to interviewing almost all of our Greenville County primary candidates. But this year, there's a possibility that the legislature will change the rules about how primaries will work. And we're going to talk about it today. So, Katy, what's proposed?

Katy Smith:
There are actually four bills filed in the House of Representatives and one in the Senate that I can tell. There may be more and more may come along. Four of the bills are essentially about closing primaries and requiring party registration. As we hope you know, in South Carolina, we do not register to vote with any party affiliation. So even if you consider yourself a Republican or a Democrat or a Libertarian, and you participate in all of those activities, you did not register to vote as a member of that party. And you can currently vote in any one primary you wish in any election cycle.

For instance, I live in the city of Greenville and we will have elections this year, which are partisan in the city of Greenville. We don't know who's running yet, but let's just say we have two Democrats running for a seat in the Greenville City primary. I might decide to vote in the Democratic primary so that I can have a say in who represents me. But then in June of 2026, next year, let's say only two Republicans file to run for the House of Representatives seat that represents me. Then I might want to vote in the Republican primary so I have a say in that race. So since I am not registered with a party, I can choose to have a voice for the candidates and races that I'm interested in in South Carolina.

If this changes in future elections, you would have to pick a party and stick with it, at least for some period of time. So some bills require you to take action before the 2026 June primary to register with a party before you can vote in that election. Another one automatically registers you with a party by virtue of whichever primary you choose to vote in.

Nathaniel DeSantis:
This seems like kind of a massive monumental shift from how the system worked leading up to now, right?

Katy Smith:
Yeah, it would be a big change. Now, there's another bill proposed that is a very different kind of change, and that introduces ranked choice voting in municipal elections. That's House Bill 3589. So currently, if a seat is nonpartisan, as several of the cities in Greenville County are, you could have three people run for a seat and each of them could get about a third of the vote. And in that case, it has to go to a runoff. So if no one gets 50% of the vote plus one vote, it goes automatically to a runoff, which is a lot of effort. It's a lot of expense. Very few people turn out because they don't realize what's happening. So ranked choice voting is a way to work around that. It's a little complicated. And in a future episode, we'll talk with an elections expert about how that works.

Nathaniel DeSantis:
So I'm kind of curious to know, is this normal across other states? Is this kind of one of many ways? Is this unique to South Carolina? What's the landscape look like?

Katy Smith:
I appreciate that. I mean, I'm sure if you all listening have moved here from somewhere else, you might have thought, well, in Florida, we did it this way or in Michigan, we did it that way. And I myself wondered, yeah, what is the norm? I think the only norm is there really is no norm. People do it in varied ways. And when we talk with our elections expert next week, we'll hear more about it. But here are some of the numbers.

So open primaries, like we currently have, are used by 13 states. It is the most predominant kind of primary, if you can call 13 states that. So again, in this system, we don't register by party. We choose which primary we want to vote in, in each primary. Supporters of this approach say that it maintains privacy of the voter's interest and allows for maximum flexibility for voters. So no one can point their finger and say, Katy is definitely a such and such. I mean, unless I always donate that way or I always vote that way, because we don't have a card that says this is the party that we are in.

Seven states have primaries that are open to unaffiliated voters. So here you can register by party. And then you get to vote in only your party's primary. But if you don't affiliate, like if you're an independent, you can vote in either. So it's, you know, open to unaffiliated.

Four states have partially open primaries. And let me say this is a little confusing to me. So here you can cross party lines, but voting in a primary effectively changes your registration. It basically sounds like you can go back and forth. Like if I'm voting in a Democratic primary, my registration is changing to Democrat, but then I can switch for the next primary. So any of you listening who are from Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, or Ohio, which is where those partially open primaries are, might be able to better explain this to me.

Nine states use partially closed primaries. So here this state allows the parties to decide whether to let unaffiliated voters participate. Partially open, every unaffiliated can participate anywhere they want. But here, registered Democrats can't vote in Republican primaries and vice versa. But the Democratic Party might allow independent voters to participate, but the Republican Party might decide to keep them out and let only Republicans in. So there's a lot of autonomy to the parties to decide.

Ten states have closed primaries, which is what's being discussed by our legislature, in which only party members can vote in their primary and independents cannot vote in a primary. And lastly, five states have a really different form, like a multi-party primary, in which everyone running for the office is on the same primary ballot and the top two vote getters, for instance, go on the general, meaning like they could both be Republicans if they're really popular or Democrats. And this is what California has. Some of y'all might have heard this on the news about how that works.

So next week, our elections expert, Michael Dimino, will walk through those in more detail and what they mean. But what you can see is there is no cookie cutter approach and that our current open primary system is, as of now, the most widely used one.

Nathaniel DeSantis:
So you mentioned now that we have an election specialist coming on or an election expert coming on. So tell us more what we'll hear about in the next two episodes.

Katy Smith:
Yeah, we are so lucky to be joined by Michael Dimino. He's a professor at Widener University Commonwealth Law School and a visiting professor at the Joseph F. Rice School of Law, University of South Carolina. But most importantly, he is the author of several books on election law. So he is the right guy for us to talk to. Next week, he will talk in more detail about these varied forms of primaries and what the legal and political implications of them are. And then the next week, he'll discuss ranked choice voting, which to me sounds a bit like an SAT logic problem, but that also seems to indicate it has a lot of logic to it. So we will hear what that's about.

We're really excited to talk about this. You know, this could have a lot of implications for the way we vote in our state, and we want you all to be informed. I know we threw a lot at you today, but in the episode page, in the show notes, you will see links to the current five bills that are proposed related to primaries, as well as a nice overview from the National Conference of State Legislatures about the different election types. So hopefully that'll give you a little more content to dig into if you're interested.

Nathaniel DeSantis:
Awesome. Well, thank you for a very quick primer on all of this, Katy. Thank you for going over this with all of us because it's confusing. I know a lot of changes coming, potentially coming, no one really knows yet. And we have some very in-depth episodes that will cover this, as you just mentioned. So having this primer was very helpful. And as always to everyone listening, thanks. Tune in again next week and have a great day.

Nathaniel DeSantis:
Hi, Simple Civics Greenville County listeners, Nathaniel here. If you've made it this far, then we think you'll really love our newsletter.

Katy Smith:
We'll see you again next week.

Catherine Puckett: Simple Civics: Greenville County is a project of Greater Good Greenville. Greater Good Greenville was catalyzed by the merger of the Nonprofit Alliance and the Greenville Partnership for Philanthropy. You can learn more on our website at greatergoodgreenville.org.