Montana GOP officials fight to 'close' primary, in complication for Trump

Fox News ^ | 3/21/2016

[BlackFemaleArmyColonel]

Montana Republicans are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to step in as early as this week and force the state to “close” its upcoming primary so only GOP voters can participate -- in a case that could pose complications for Donald Trump.

The Republican front-runner so far has done better in "open" primaries, where members of both parties can vote, than in "closed" primaries limited to Republican voters only.

Montana, set to vote June 7, has had an “open primary” since 1912.

But state GOP officials want to change all that, in a bid to keep out Democrats and other “cross-over” voters who might sway the outcome. They argue keeping the primaries open infringes on their constitutional right of association.

“This is a First Amendment right,” state Republican Party lawyer Matthew Monforton told FoxNews.com.

He said the looming primary is particularly important because it would allow people to flood the system in an incredibly close Republican race. If the system is left unchecked, Monforton believes outside groups could unfairly influence the state’s winner-take-all primaries, where Montana’s 27 presidential delegates are up for grabs.

[BlackFemaleArmyColonel]

GO TRUMP - THE OUTSIDER!

[aMorePerfectUnion]

RINOs prefer Safe Zone primaries.

[ObamahatesPACoal]

The 2012 Montana GOP lost the Senate race and lost the Governor race while 80% of Montana voted for LR121(cutting welfare for illegals)

[ronnietherocket3]

They argue keeping the primaries open infringes on their constitutional right of association.

The timing of this realization is awkward.

[ObamahatesPACoal]

Montana LR-121
OverturnedOverturned Case:Montana Justice Immigrant Alliance et al. v. Bullock et al. BDV-2012-1042
Result Votes Percentage
Yes 378,563 79.51%
No 97,528 20.49%

https://ballotpedia.org/Montana_Proof_of_Citizenship_Question,_LR-121_%282012%29

Is Arizona closed for beat-Trump but open for save-McCain in August?

[Hugin]

Like asking the refs to change the rules in the 4th quarter.

[Red Steel]

I ran the numbers and Trump doesn’t need Montana or SD, ND or UT. Trump will get 1,400 plus delegates without these states and 1,237 is about slam dunk for Trump.

[20yearsofinternet]

Let these stupid #NeverTrumps close their primary. Florida, Louisiana, Nevada... all closed primaries, all Trump wins. The notion that Trump only wins because of “spoiler votes” from Democrats is Cruzlim circlejerk fanfiction.

[FreeReign]

The timing of this realization is awkward.

No it's not. Montana Republicans have been fighting this since at least last summer.

And most here on FR for years have been saying that the primaries should be closed. But I guess that's one more principle out the window. Bring in the Democrats.

[BlackFemaleArmyColonel]

I pray you are right!!!

[Kenny]

I think they should all be modified primaries. Many in my family and friends have been so disgusted they went Independent. In a modified undeclared can vote either party.

[Nuc 1.1]

Don’t know about tomorrow but McCain is toast.

[Greetings_Puny_Humans]

They’d better not. Deadlines for switching party affiliation are probably coming up in that state or passed already, which means they’d be disenfranchising lots of independents and other people protesting the GOP who didn’t bother to switch party affiliation knowing that they had an open primary.

That said, the whole “Trump doesn’t do well in closed primaries” was disproved after Florida.

[libh8er]

Can you give a breakdown of how that happens ?

[JoSixChip]

But I guess that's one more principle out the window.

Your a fine one to talk being a cruz supporter when cruz has shown himself to be the ultimate gopE candidate.

[hotsteppa]

Just wow. They are going all out.

[FreeReign]

Your a fine one to talk being a cruz supporter when cruz has shown himself to be the ultimate gopE candidate.

No he hasn't.

Back to the subject of the thread, are you for open primaries.

[upsdriver]

What about the independent voters? If we are disenfranchised during the primaries, why should we show up to vote Republican in Nov? Keep in mind many of us are far more conservative than most Republicans.

[Red Steel]

Sure since I have a scenario already broken down in HTML. Montana likely won't play in determining when Trump gets his 1,237 as it comes late.

Montana's primary is June 7th as is California, South Dakota and New Jersey. If the right column is blank, all those delegates go to Cruz or Kasich or whoever where Trump gets shutout in those states. And there are two more states are thrown in here that I didn't point out above: MT, OR, SD, CO, NM, and UT where Trump gets nothing. I gave ND gave 10 here, but you can subtract that too from the total where it wouldn't hurt Trump getting what he needs. In this scenario Trump gets 720 delegates to go with his 696 = 1,416. Remember most of these states are WTA or WTM in some variation unlike before March 15th.

---

Sheet 2: Sheet2

States	Delegates	Trump Simulator
American Samoa	9	9
Arizona	58	58
Utah	40
North Dakota	28	10
Wisconsin	42	42
Colorado	37
New York	95	95
Connecticut	28	21
Delaware	16	16
Maryland	38	38
Pennsylvania	71	60
Rhode Island	19	15
Indiana	57	57
Nebraska	36	36
West Virginia	34	34
Oregon	28
Washington	44	38
California	172	140
Montana	27
New Jersey	51	51
New Mexico	24
South Dakota	29
Totals	983	720

[JSDude1]

I don’t care if it helps Trump or not, there is LITERALLY NO REASON for Democrats to be voting in Republican Primaries. NONE.

It is a bit different for indepenedents as one could argue that at least half of these are disaffected Republicans who went independent because of disgust over leadership, but if one doesn’t have the guts to at least “leave” the Democrat party, one has NO BUSINESS in a Republican Primary or Caucus. Period!