Are there ANY republican primary states that allow independents to vote

[bigdarryl]

No one is talking about this

[dsc]

1. yes

Most states have the same rules for both primaries but I know that New Hampshire and North Carolina both let independents vote in the primaries to name two.

[Blue_In_AK]

5. That is not the case here.

Republicans have a closed primary, while anyone can take a Democratic ballot. Our primary ballots are distributed this way:

Alaska Democratic Party, Alaska Libertarian Party and Alaskan Independence Party Candidate with Ballot Measures ballot - any registered voter may vote this ballot;

Alaska Republican Party Candidate with Ballot Measures ballot - voters registered as Republican, Nonpartisan or Undeclared may vote this ballot; and

the Ballot Measures Only ballot - any registered voter may vote this ballot.
The political party affiliation listed on a voter's registration record 30 days prior to the election determines which primary ballot type a voter is eligible to vote.

http://www.elections.alaska.gov/ei_primary.php

In other words, Republicans can vote in a Democratic primary, but Democrats can't vote in a Republican primary. We used to have an open primary system, but the Republicans got pissed off because a lot of Democrats were trying to influence their results, since Democrats traditionally lose here (since the oil boom) and we were trying to pick the least odious Republican.


Here's an interesting history of our ever-changing system. http://www.elections.alaska.gov/doc/forms/H42.pdf A lot of people would like to go back to the open primary since so many people here are nonaffiliated and sometimes people want to vote for a Republican for one office and a Democrat for another.

[ingac70]

2. TN has open primaries. n/t

[zbird]

4. So does Michigan.

You don't declare party affiliation when you register to vote.

[EC]

3. Wi is open primaries

don't have to declare a party.

[Art_from_Ark]

6. Arkansas has open primaries

so if I wanted to vote in next year's Republican primary, I could.

[jwirr]

7. Iowa used to.

[GoCubsGo]

8. SC has open primaries.

The SCGOP has been threatening to close them, however.

[karynnj]

9. MA is one state that allows that and about and slightly over 50% of the

people enrolled to vote are independent. http://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/elepdf/st_county_town_enroll_breakdown_08.pdf

Independent voters can - by voting in a primary on election day - which changes their registration to the party they voted for. (One of my daughters did this to vote for Obama. She did not want to be part of a party, but is to the left of the Democratic party.)
Also, no matter how you voted last primary, you can change your declaration and vote in the other party's primary - but you need to do this 55 days before the election.

http://www.nj.gov/state/elections/parties_doe.html

Note: If the purpose is to have a Democratic version of project chaos, I suggest that this is an extremely bad idea. It is fundamentally wrong to interfere with the other party's decision of who they want to elect. So, unless you see a Republican candidate, who you genuinely admire, I hope you think hard before doing this.

I wish we were back in the days where the two parties were not so polarized (accomplished by a gigantic shift of the Republicans) that there were times this could have happened. Had Anderson run and won the Republican nomination in 1980, I would have voted for him - I almost did when he was the independent as he was more liberal than Carter. Similarly, there were Republicans I could have supported in 1992 - if one of the (already weaker) liberal wing of the party challenged and defeated GWB. John Heinz was one example - far better on the environment (at that point) than Clinton.

Congress also worked a lot better when neither party was in lock step with an ideology or a leader.