Motivation

Like others, I focused in on the partisanship-independence piece. There was one bit which I found potentially problematic: you suggest that in closed-primary states there will be greater partisanship, because an individual benefits from picking a party by being able to vote in the primary, however you are also suggesting that partisanship is one of the things that increases likelihood to vote, whereas independents are less likely to vote. This may prove to be a bit of a chicken/egg problem, because desire to vote in the primary is what is supposed to encourage the independents to pick a party, but picking a party is then supposed to be what encourages the (former) independents to vote.

Knowing absolutely nothing about this topic, I’m sure there’s a whole lot that I’m missing — but I do think (as others suggested) that fleshing out what motivates people to register as independent may be helpful.