Hmm, I wonder what his demands are going to be...
Unsurprisingly, Sanders does not actually know who decides whether a primary is open or closed.
Also, nothing about undemocratic caucuses.
Theoretically, the DNC does, as it could totally penalize states that chose to have closed primaries if the DNC finally put its foot down and declared they were not going to support such.
It's such a patchwork system that I don't know if there are any cases of such, but this might pose an issue in GOP-controlled states where the system is closed and these decisions are made by the state government for both parties. I'm wondering if there are any such states, or if each party gets to make that decision in all 50 states. From state to state, there are primaries/caucuses that are run by the states, primaries/caucuses that are run by the parties, closed primaries, open primaries, states with no registration deadline, states with stringent registration deadlines, and so forth. I'm unsure whether the state parties have the ability to alter any and all of those variables unilaterally unless they completely take over their primary process from the state...which wouldn't be feasible in most cases.
A State can not require a party to use a particular process to choose its delegates to a national convention, and a State can not require a political party to not associate with non-affiliated voters for its nominating activities, even when the State is running the primary.
Democratic Party of U.S. v. Wisconsin, (1981) No. 79-1631Tashjian v. Republican Party of Connecticut (1986) No. 85-766The DNC could conceivably provide sanctions for States that use closed primaries, and offer to provide legal expertise if state parties need to challenge state laws.
