Abe Ziskis v. Fife Symington, Governor Richard Mahoney, Secretary of State Grant Woods, Attorney General

Appellant Abe Ziskis, acting pro se, alleges that Arizona’s closed party primary election system violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitu tion. Ziskis registered as an independent voter in Maricopa County, Arizona on June 24th, 1992. As an independent voter, Ziskis could not vote in the Arizona state primary election held in September, 1992 because Arizona Revised Statute (A.R.S.) 16-467(B) denies any voter not affiliated with a political party the opportunity to vote in that party’s primary. On December 27, 1993, the district court granted defendant’s motion for summary judgment and denied Ziskis’s motion for summary judgment.

We review a grant of summary judgment de novo. Hanon v. Dataproducts Corp., 976 F.2d 497, 500 (9th Cir.1992). We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and we affirm.

DISCUSSION

We note at the outset that Tashjian v. Republican Party of Connecticut, 479 U.S. 208 , 107 S.Ct. 544 , 93 L.Ed.2d 514 (1986), does not control our decision here. In Tash-jian, the Supreme Court considered a challenge brought by the Republican Party of Connecticut to a state law that prevented it from permitting non-members to vote in its…