State Sen. Sam Givhan (R-Huntsville) reported this week that he isn’t optimistic about the upper chamber of the Alabama Legislature passing a closed primary bill this session.

The Alabama House passed the SAVE Act party registration bill last week. The legislation, sponsored by State Rep. Ernie Yarbrough (R-Trinity), requires party registration to be able to vote in the state’s partisan primary elections, and stipulates that existing voters must register with a party to participate in primary elections starting in 2027.

Givhan, who is carrying the legislation in the Senate, discussed the issue during a recent appearance on “The Rightside” with Allison Sinclair and Amie Beth Shaver, presented by Yellowhammer News.

“So yeah, there doesn’t seem to be a tremendous appetite for it,” Givhan said. “But you know, this bill wasn’t filed until I think the 22nd legislative day, and it just passed the House, I believe, Thursday. So I imagine that’s going to be a conversation that we have when we come back.”

Beyond the issue of time running out to get the bill through, Givhan thinks there are several lawmakers that are still skeptical about the measure.

“Some of what I’m getting anecdotally — number one is probably ‘why now?’ It’s not going to affect this primary at all,” he explained. “You know, we’ve got a bunch of primary drama, both in the House and the Senate. And then there are some people that — I’m not going to reveal who they are — but they are ardent Republicans and there’s no question about their GOP credentials, but they just don’t like it.”

There are some Republicans and Democrats who are also worried about turning off independents.

“Look, there are a lot of people that say they’re independent for whatever reason — it’s a sense of pride maybe — but that’s not how they vote,” he argued.

“You look at their voting patterns and they tend to vote, at least in our community, Republican. But you’ve got to remember the counter of this is true in the Black Belt…And up here in North Alabama and different parts of the state, there’s not a viable Democratic candidate. So therefore you see a lot of Democrats voting in our primary. I know for a fact that that has happened. I don’t think it’s happening in the numbers that some people suspect.”

Givhan said he wants to do whatever is best for the Republican Party in the state, but also doesn’t see a closed primary system dramatically changing who gets voted into the legislature.

“But I’m not sure a closed primary would make that big of a difference statewide in terms of legislative makeup,” he said. “When you look at how many people are truly independent and go back and forth between the primaries — my consultant has done a breakdown — it’s a small number.”

Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on X @Yaffee