Existing New Hampshire election law allows for anyone who has registered as “Undeclared” for their political party, sometimes called “independent” in other states, to request on primary election day a ballot to vote in a Republican party primary.
By doing so, they become registered, in effect, as a “momentary Republican,” and as soon as they have completed voting, they can, on the way out of the voting site, file a document changing their party registration back to “Undeclared.”
Some commentators have posited that a good strategy for the Democrats would be to get as many voters registered as Undeclared but who are really Democrats in disguise to vote in Republican primaries for the candidate or candidates thought to be the weakest candidate against Democrats in any upcoming general election.
Of course, the converse could easily be applicable, with Republican-leaning Undeclared voters being encouraged to vote in the Democrat primaries to try to get the weakest of the candidates to win to make it somewhat easier for the Republican candidate in the general election.
Whichever way Undeclared voters choose to vote, if they do not believe in a political party sufficiently to register as a member of that party, they should not be allowed to vote in the selection of that party’s candidates.
Otherwise, the party affiliation of a candidate is diluted to the point of becoming nearly meaningless.
The only voters allowed to vote in a party primary should be those who were validly registered as a member of that party not later than the day before the primary election.
