When do voters not need to declare a party before voting?

In the US, you don’t for all general elections. You do have to in order to vote in most primaries, although there is at least one state that lets you vote in primaries regardless of which party you declared, but only once (so you can vote for a Republican candidate or a Democratic candidate).

In the UK, we don’t have primaries (the political parties pick their leaders by a private vote of members/affiliates etc.), so there is never any requirement for a voter to declare a party before voting.

In the US, who pays for the primaries? Not the campaigning, but the provision of voting places, counting, security etc.?

Primary elections are one means by which a political party nominates candidates for the next general election.

@meiosis in a Statewide election and National elections the state pays for the election process, polling places, security, counters etc.. some areas the counties (subgroup of most states) pays for printing ballots because there are local offices being elected. Most judges at the polling stations and counters are volunteers. Ballot machines, were used, are provided by the counties, but paid for by the states.

If I remember correctly, its so that people from one party don’t go to the other party’s primaries and try to get a weak candidate selected who would lose in the general.

E.g. what if a bunch of Democrats got Sarah Palin selected as the Republican nominee. Lots of Republicans would probably rather vote for Obama than Palin.

Why does the state get involved in what is essentially a private election? Why not let the parties organise their own leadership elections? It seems a remarkable subsidy that the taxpayer is giving.

@meiosis – I agree with you. But then, plenty of Americans seem to believe that the Democratic and Republican parties are official parts of the government, too.