CLOSED PRIMARIES

Under current law, at each primary election a voter is entitled to pick any ballot among the various established political parties, regardless of the voter's political party affiliation or unaffiliation. This act stipulates that a voter is only entitled to cast a ballot in the primary of the political party with which the voter is affiliated, according to the voter registration.

The act permits a voter to change political party affiliation at any time, provided that changes made less than 23 weeks prior to the primary election will not take effect until after such election has taken place. A person who has not previously registered to vote in Missouri and who registers to vote after the last day to change party affiliation but before the last day to register to vote may vote in the primary election if the person chooses a political party affiliation or unaffiliation upon registering to vote.

A person registered to vote prior to the effective date of this act shall be considered to be unaffiliated with a political party unless the person votes in the primary election held in August 2028, in which case the election authority must change the person's voter registration to reflect that the ballot chosen by the person is the political party with which the person is affiliated.

The act requires any person who files a declaration of candidacy as a party candidate for nomination or election to any office to be affiliated with that political party no later than twenty-three weeks prior to the last Tuesday in February (the opening of candidate filing) immediately preceding the primary election in question. Likewise, any person running as an independent candidate or as the candidate for a new party shall be registered as unaffiliated as of the same deadline.

Current law allows party nominating committees of any established political party to select a party candidate under certain situations. This act requires any candidate selected by the committee to be affiliated with such party.

These provisions are substantially similar to HB 1128 (2025), HB 1156 (2025), SB 1140 (2024), HB 1410 (2024), SB 392 (2023), SB 240 (2023), HB 31 (2023), SB 907 (2022), SB 154 (2021), HB 1450 (2022), SB 571 (2020), HB 1258 (2020), HB 1639 (2020), SB 109 (2019), and HCS/HBs 26 & 922 (2019).

PARTISAN LOCAL ELECTIONS

This act also modifies provisions relating to the conduct of local elections. Current law provides that municipal offices are elected on a nonpartisan basis. This act requires all candidates for offices in cities, towns, villages, and townships to declare a political party affiliation when filing for office.

This provision is identical to a provision in SB 86 (2025), SB 202 (2023), HB 1203 (2023), and SB 1049 (2022) and similar to HB 1640 (2022) and SB 414 (2021).

SCOTT SVAGERA