Kentucky has registration by party, and does not allow independents to vote in party primaries. Although (under a U.S. Supreme Court decision) any party with a primary is free to override state law and let independents vote in its primary, neither the Democratic nor Republican Party currently allows independents to vote in its primaries.

Kentucky Representative Jimmy Higdon (R-Lebanon) has introduced HB 17, which says that independent voters may vote in any party primary. The bill does not acknowledge any role for political parties to make their own decision about that.

Indiana currently does not have registration by party. On primary day, voters ask for any particular party’s primary ballot. Representative Dan Stevenson (D-Highland) has introduced HB 1404. It would provide that a primary voter decides in the secrecy of the voting booth which party’s primary to vote in. As before, though, a voter could only vote in one party’s primary.

Five Greens have filed petitions to be on the party’s primary ballot for U.S. House of Representatives, Illinois 5th district. The primary is on March 3. Each Green needed 30 valid signatures to qualify for the Green primary ballot. The five candidates are Alan Auguston, Mark Fredrickson, Deb Gordils, Matt Reichel, and Simm Ribeiro. The 5th district seat is vacant because Rahm Emanuel resigned his Congressional seat to become Chief of Staff to President-Elect Barack Obama.