Federal appeals court upholds Hawaii’s open primary

HONOLULU — A federal appeals court is upholding an earlier decision to support the way Hawaii holds its primary elections, rejecting the Democratic Party’s desire to exclude non-Democrats from advancing candidates to the general election.

The Democratic Party of Hawaii had challenged Hawaii’s open primary system where registered voters can choose any party’s ballot to cast their votes without formally joining the party. Party leaders wanted to limit primary elections to formal members or people willing to declare their allegiance, because they said the open primary system allows people from opposing parties to influence their party’s candidate selection.

Judge Wallace Tashima of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals said it was up to the Hawaii Democratic Party to prove that problem exists. But he said in an opinion Monday the party didn’t provide evidence that opponents are determining the Democratic Party’s election outcomes.

“Absent evidence that Hawaii’s system affects the Party’s ability to select its nominees, the Party’s facial challenge failed,” Tashima wrote.

Hawaii is one of 15 states with open primaries, meaning voters can select any one party’s ballot to cast their votes on Election Day. Only nine states have closed primaries where voters have to register with a party in advance to cast a primary vote, the National Conference on State Legislatures says. Those closed primaries are designed to keep voters from “crossing over” and casting ballots in their opponent’s primary election.

Tashima said the U.S. Supreme Court previously declared California’s “blanket primary” system — which allowed people to vote for candidates from multiple parties in the primary — unconstitutional after California provided evidence of a problem. In that case, data showed 20 percent of registered Democrats and 37 percent of registered Republicans planned to vote in the other party’s primary in 1998. He said Hawaii didn’t supply evidence of that kind of “clear and present danger.”

The Office of Elections declined to comment on the litigation, referring calls to the state attorney general.

Tim Vandeveer, chairman of the Democratic Party of Hawaii, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.