[SoothingDave]

"First of all, the cost to declare or register in a party in order to vote in that party's primary is nothing. So all citizens are free to vote."

No, actually they aren't.

Actually, they are.

I'm a registered independent, and I am excluded from voting UNLESS I declare myself a member of some party, which I am not about to do---yet my tax dollars go to paying for the election in which I cannot vote.

The only one stopping you from voting in a primary is you.

SD

[Wonder Warthog]

"The only one stopping you from voting in a primary is you."

I don't see it that way. And a majority of the total voters agree with me, since in my state of residence the "open primary" has been voted in several times in one flavor or another and struck down by the courts.

Simply put, this is another case of the courts "making law" where they have no business intruding.