By JIM BARON

PROVIDENCE — The state Republican Party is clearly divided over the issue of whether to restrict voting in its primary elections to registered party members only, and Chairman Giovanni Cicione says that if they do decide to close the primaries it will not happen in time for next year’s race for governor.

But even if party members want to take that step, the secretary of state’s office says they are not allowed to under state law.
Chris Barnett, spokesman for Secretary of State Ralph Mollis, said Wednesday that,  “According to our reading of state law, unaffiliated voters have the right to vote in primaries even if a political party revises its own governing rules in order to bar them.”
Cicione rejects that interpretation.
“I think the secretary of state is wrong,” he said Wednesday, “I have talked to lawyers who indicated that this has been fought through not long ago in other states where the secretary of state took the same position and the courts told them that essentially that political parties are private
organizations and it is up to each political party how they choose their candidates and the role of the state is to simply facilitate the election process.
“The secretary of state may be correct that it is contrary to what is on the books in Rhode Island, but it would be unconstitutional if the secretary of state tried to enforce it,” he added.
Closing primaries to only registered party members, Cicione says, “Is an interesting concept. “I’m not sure I oppose it, I just don’t have enough information at this point. I don’t think it’s good for the party to rush into it. The last thing we want is to take an action like that and have it perceived as an effort to drive away voters. We want to make sure that moderates and independents are clear that they are welcome to vote for Republican candidates and be part of our process.
“So if we were to close the primary, I think it would take some voter education on our part to make sure it wasn’t perceived the wrong way,” the chairman added. “It’s not something we could do in the next six months, we don’t have the budget for it or the plan.”
In 2012 or 2014, he said, “there might be a good case for it. It might drive our registration numbers up because they’ve been pretty low.
“Everyone has their gut opinion on this,” Cicione said, “but nobody has put forth any evidence that this would increase our voter registration or bring more people into the Republican fold. I suspect it might, but I haven’t seen how it has worked in other states.”
Cicione says he fears that if the Republicans tried to make the change this year, “it would be perceived as an attempt to help Steve Laffey and I think that is reason enough not to do it this year. I don’/t think that helps Steve Laffey first of all, to have that negative perception and I think it is a question of fairness. We shouldn’t have a committee of party leaders decide who is going to get favorable treatment as candidates.”
In the 2006 GOP primary for U.S. Senate, Laffey challenged then-Republican Lincoln Chafee and it was thought that independents flocked to the Republican primary to vote for Chafee and many Democrats disaffiliated in order to be able to vote for the more liberal Chafee, who subsequently lost to Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse and left the Republican Party. Chafee is now running for governor as an Independent. 
The Republican Party Executive Committee will discuss the issue next week and it could be put to the state committee in February.
Democratic State Chairman William Lynch said, the Democratic Party is not interested in closing its primaries.
“I certainly don’t mind if the Republicans want to close their primary because I think that will benefit us and attract new people into the Democratic fold. We have no intention of supporting any such thing.”
Lynch said, “we as a party have a very strong connection with independents, we consider many of them to be active members of the party, even though they choose to be listed as independent. I wouldn’t support anything that would alienate or send a message to those independents that they are not welcome to participate in our process and many of them do.

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