SALT LAKE CITY — A federal judge Tuesday struck down a provision in Utah's new election law that requires political parties to open primary elections to all voters.

U.S. District Judge David Nuffer found that open primaries would be a "severe burden" on parties because it forces them to "flood" their elections with thousands of unaffiliated voters. In Utah, that would mean letting about 610,000 people who don't claim a political affiliation to vote in party primary elections.

Nuffer's ruling, however, leaves the remainder of the law intact, including allowing candidates to gather signatures without going through a party caucus and convention to get on the primary ballot.

Utah Republican Party Chairman James Evans said he was pleased with the decision.

"The issue was whether the state can force a political party to associate with others. That's what we got resolved," Evans said. "The state simply overstepped its constitutional authority there."

The Utah GOP allows only registered Republicans to vote in its primary elections.

State Elections Director Mark Thomas said the ruling wasn't a surprise, noting Nuffer indicated early on that he found the open primary requirement troubling.

"But it's a small part of SB54. In fact, it's one line in SB54," he said. "The bigger part of this is the judge ruled that the rest of it, specifically the signature gathering portion, is constitutional."

That means candidates next year will have the choice to go through the convention system, take the signature route or both, Thomas said.

The state told the judge in a court filing last week that it doesn't intend to file a response to his decision but reserves the right to appeal. The Utah Attorney General's Office did not have an immediate comment Tuesday on the ruling.

An initiative called Count My Vote two years ago set out to increase voter participation by changing how political parties choose candidates. Initiative supporters dropped the statewide petition drive calling for a referendum on a direct primary election in exchange for getting an alternative path to the ballot.

As a compromise, the Republican-controlled Utah Legislature passed SB54 to let parties keep the state's unique caucus and convention system for choosing nominees, but also allow candidates to collect a requisite number of signatures for a particular office to qualify for the primary election.

The Utah Republican Party and the Utah Constitution Party sued the state, arguing the law violates their right to free association, determine their brand and message, and select nominees to run for public office.

Under the law, organizations that register with the state as a "qualified political party" — which the GOP and the Constitution Party did — must allow candidates an alternate route to the ballot and open their primaries to unaffiliated voters, though that requirement is now gone.

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Rich McKeown, Count My Vote co-chairman, said having open primaries was not critical, and the law will still change the way elections are done if parties comply with the it.

Nuffer also found allowing candidates to gather signatures without going through a party caucus and convention to get on the primary ballot is constitutional.

"None of us had an issue with the state allowing signature gathering," Evans said. "The issue was whether the state can force us to participate in signature gathering."

The law gives qualified political parties the option to choose the convention system, signature gathering or both, and the Utah GOP chose only the convention system, he said.

Evans said the party's membership requirements don't allow candidates to take the petition route and those who "won't be members of the Utah Republican Party."

But Thomas said regardless of how Evans interprets the law, it clearly allows candidates — not political parties — to choose their path to the ballot.

Evans said determining party membership would be the next court battle between the GOP and the state.

Utah Democratic Party Chairman Peter Corroon affirmed the party's support for laws that open the political process to more voters, including candidates' ability to get on the ballot through the signature process.

"While Republicans continue to shut out independents and unaffiliated voters, we welcome them with open arms to the Utah Democratic Party," he said in statement.

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