Help me figure out this statistic from the exit poll

[bluestateguy]

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/primaries/results/epolls/#FLREP

Vote By Party ID

Republican (80%): Romney (33%), McCain (31%)
Independent(17%): Romney (23%), McCain (41%)

Uh, why were independents voting in what was supposed to be a closed primary?

[bluestateguy]

1. kick

:kick:

[bluestateguy]

2. kick again

:kick:

[bluestateguy]

3. kick

:kick:

[Perky]

4. This is self-identification rather than actual party registration.

They are registered republicans.

Same thing on the Dem side.

[JI7]

5. they registered Republican but consider themselves independents

a lot of times people register with a party just to vote in that election and later change back to indie or some other party if they want to vote in that election.

[DangerDave921]

6. Register

I think the distinction is between REGISTERED independents (who cannot vote) and those who self-identify as independents in an exit poll. That is, they are registered Repubs, but tell the pollster they are really independents. That's my best guess.

[mohc]

7. Which is why "closed" primary states are not that much different than open...

I would love it if someone could do the research on this, but I would wager that Independent registration is much higher in open and modified open states than in closed. From an Independent's point of view, open and modified open primaries are the same, they can vote in either the Democratic or Republican primary. In a closed primary, Independents can not vote in either primary, so I would assume in closed primary states Independents tend to register with the party they would most likely vote with so that they can have some say in the primaries. When both parties have competitive primaries, the level of Independent participation in the primary is probably fairly similar between the open and closed formats. The real difference is when one side has no primary, like say an incumbent is running unchallenged in one party, the open format allows for cross over voting, and in the case of the full open format, even the other party can cross over.