Five Republican state legislators in South Dakota have introduced SB 175, which requires political parties to permit independent voters to vote in their primaries. Currently, state law gives each party the choice of whether to let independents vote in its primaries or not. Only the Democratic and Republican Parties are ballot-qualified, and neither of them now permits independents to vote in their primaries. The bill has a hearing in the Senate Local Government Committee on February 9. UPDATE: the hearing was postponed until February 14.