Primary Absurdity: Our Expensive Presidential Beauty Contests

State presidential primaries have strayed far from their original purposes. So why must taxpayers pick up the tab?

Feb. 9, 2016, looms larger by the day. That's the date of the iconic New Hampshire presidential primary, famous for dashing the dreams of so many White House wannabes and vaulting previously obscure candidates onto center stage.

So is this also the day reserved for loyal Granite State Democrats and Republicans to reflect carefully on their respective parties' bedrock principles as they weigh who their party's standard-bearers deserve to be? Think again.

Today, 44 percent of New Hampshire's approximately 900,000 voters are none-of-the-aboves, officially registered as "undeclared." Yet every one of these voters is eligible to cast a presidential primary ballot in either party's contest simply by registering in one party or another on the spot. Once they've done their electoral duty, they can switch back to the party status (or lack thereof) that they enjoyed when they woke up that morning. Most do exactly that.

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