This just in: Wisconsin closes its primary

Jessica McBride has an exclusive today, reporting on her blog that Wisconsin has a closed primary election system.

Fighting Bob LaFollette must be spinning in his grave, since 2005 would have been the 100th anniversary of Wisconsin adopting the open primary, which he championed.

In an open primary, voters do not have to register by party or say publicly which party's primary they are voting in. That allows them to vote in whichever primary has the most interesting contests. It does not allow voters to jump back and forth between the parties in the same primary election, however; once you pick which ballot you're voting on, you're limited to helping that party choose its nominees.

A closed primary requires voters to publicly declare their party affiliation before they get a ballot for the party they choose. Wisconsin has never had such a system. And it still doesn't.

The Wisconsin Blue Book has details on page 885.