North Carolina lawmakers made unaffiliated voter participation in partisan primaries a permanent feature of state election laws as part of a veto override of S747 on Oct. 10, 2023. As part of the omnibus election bill, political parties holding primaries in the state must allow unaffiliated voters to participate in their primaries. Previously, state law permitted but did not require parties to allow these voters to participate in their primaries.
Both the Democratic and Republican parties in North Carolina have allowed unaffiliated voters to participate in their primaries since 1995, so the state’s primary systems do not change immediately due to the new law. The new law gives unaffiliated voters a right to participate in partisan primaries and eliminates a party’s ability to bar these voters from primary participation moving forward.
This type of primary is referred to as a semi-closed primary. Closed primaries, in contrast, are primaries in which a voter must affiliate formally with a political party before the primary to participate. In open primaries, any voter may vote in the primary of their choice, regardless of their affiliation status.
