This is very alien to me, also not from the US. What is party affiliation? And voter registration?
Like in my country, there is a “vote-registry”, which is basically only relevant if you move out or back into the country. It is a “should the government include you to be able to cast a vote” , which is associated with your ordinary government registrerd address. All party “affiliations”, or they are memberships here, are handled by the parties themselves.
Is party affiliation like memberships but centrally registred with the government? Is voting registration not something which is default, but something you have to… Apply for? How is the party affiliation and voter registration linked? You have to include who you intend to vote for?
A lot of States have what’s called “Closed Primaries” where they only let people that have registered with their party vote for who will be on the ballot. Ostensibly they do this so say Republicans can’t mass join a Democrat primary and skew results by voting for a candidate with no motion that the Republican will easily beat in the general and vice versa.
In reality it’s mostly a tool for party outreach and fundraising. If the Democrats know that 100 Democrats live in this neighborhood and they’re like medium propensity voters they might send some volunteers to knock doors in that neighborhood, for example.
This is very alien to me, also not from the US. What is party affiliation? And voter registration?
Like in my country, there is a “vote-registry”, which is basically only relevant if you move out or back into the country. It is a “should the government include you to be able to cast a vote” , which is associated with your ordinary government registrerd address. All party “affiliations”, or they are memberships here, are handled by the parties themselves.
Is party affiliation like memberships but centrally registred with the government? Is voting registration not something which is default, but something you have to… Apply for? How is the party affiliation and voter registration linked? You have to include who you intend to vote for?
Some (but not all) states record party preference (i.e., Democrat or Republican), if provided. You do have to specifically register to vote.
Why do they do that? What is the original reason for it? To people from other democratic countries this sounds very strange.
A lot of States have what’s called “Closed Primaries” where they only let people that have registered with their party vote for who will be on the ballot. Ostensibly they do this so say Republicans can’t mass join a Democrat primary and skew results by voting for a candidate with no motion that the Republican will easily beat in the general and vice versa.
In reality it’s mostly a tool for party outreach and fundraising. If the Democrats know that 100 Democrats live in this neighborhood and they’re like medium propensity voters they might send some volunteers to knock doors in that neighborhood, for example.
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