In an earlier article I alluded to data that indicated that Donald Trump's strongest base of support is among independents and Democrats.  According to a study of 11,000 Republican leading voters, Trump...

... has the support of 40% of unregistered voters, 36% of Independent voters, and 43% of Democratic voters who call themselves Republican leaning voters but only 29% of registered Republican voters.

Anecdotal evidence would seem to  support this, as news reports indicates that Trump is bringing new voters to the Republican party.  If this is true, however, there have been no reported surges that I could find in Republican voter registration (it could be happening, but I haven't been able to find reports of it).  Therefore, if Trump is to be helped by new voters, he will probably be helped only in states with primaries and caucuses that either permit non-Republicans to vote on the day of the primary/caucus or permit registration as a Republican on the day of the primary or caucus.  These are called open, semi-open, or even semi-closed primaries and caucuses.

I thought it would be interesting to produce a list of states to see which ones fall into this category.  The following is a list of states where any legitimate voter may participate in Republican primaries or caucuses.  States that state "GOP and unaffiliated voters only" exclude Democrats.

Alabama

Arkansas

Arizona (GOP and unaffiliated voters only)

Colorado (GOP and unaffiliated voters only)

Georgia

Idaho (GOP and unaffiliated voters only)

Illinois

Iowa

Massachusetts  (GOP and unaffiliated voters only)

Michigan

Minnesota

Mississippi

Missouri

Montana

New Hampshire  (GOP and unaffiliated voters only)

North Carolina  (GOP and unaffiliated voters only)

Ohio

Oklahoma  (GOP and unaffiliated voters only)

Rhode Island  (GOP and unaffiliated voters only)

South Carolina

Tennessee

Texas

Vermont

Virginia

Wisconsin

West Virginia  (GOP and unaffiliated voters only)

The most profound states in the list are those that vote early and those that are populous.  Going back to my trusty list of states and delegates, I find out that these make up 1,104 delegates, or about 1,038 delegates when you exclude uncommitted party insider delegates.  Twelve hundred thirty-six delegates are needed to win.  So states representing nearly half the GOP primary delegates have rules favoring voter participation by non-Republicans.

You may be puzzled to see Iowa on this list.  Iowa allows only Republicans to vote in the caucuses, but people can declare themselves Republicans on the day of the primary.  New Hampshire, which is well-known for having an open primary, does not allow Democrats to vote in Republican primaries – only unaffiliated voters and Republicans.

If the research is correct, these are the states where Donald Trump will get an added boost in the upcoming primaries and caucuses.

This article was written by Ed Straker, senior writer of NewsMachete.com, the conservative news site.