What if I want to drop my party and become an independant? Do I just register as independant and am I immediatly dropped from my current party rolls? Or do I need to notify them as well?
All states do it differently. In MA you can change every time you vote, or before if you call up the town office. In most states there really isn’t any practical meaning of “party rolls”.
In some states you need to be registered in a party for X years before you can vote in the primary. That tends to prevent people from switching parties. In others (most?) you can switch affiliation right up to the time you ask for a ballot. In MA I usually ask for whichever primary ballot I want to vote in, then when I’m leaving ask them to switch me back to Independent.
I don’t know how it is in PA, but down here on the other side of the Mason-Dixon line, you have to contact your local voter registration office at least two or three months before the primary election. Here in MD, the only effect of declaring party affiliation is the ability to vote in that party’s primary. I’ve know some people who claimed to be registered in the party opposite their actual beliefs so they can vote for the weaker candidate in that party’s primaries. I doubt many people actually do this, though.
I first registered as an independent, but switched when I realized it effectively locked me out of the primaries.
Here in Wisconsin you never have to declare an afilliation. In a primary you may vote on one party’s ticket only, but everyone gets a ballot with all party’s candidates, so no one knows which party you voted for. This does lead to some interesting problems. While it respects your privacy, it can be confusing, and if you vote for candidates in different parties, your ballot is null and void, and your vote doesn’t count. The other effect is “attack voting”. While in the November election I will vote a split ticket, mainly democrat, in the primary I voted republican to vote for the republican least likely to be able to defeat the democratic contender in November. An effort that failed I might add. But no where do I have to say I am republican, democrat, libertarian, green, communist, nazi, independent or any other party. I was a republican all my life, I voted for Reagan, and Bush (The Elected). I voted against Bush (The Appointed). Bush the Appointed drove me more and more to the dems, and the greens. In that case it made no difference, decided not by recount or run-off election, but by the SCOTUS. Truly the ballots did not matter. I think run off elections should be investigated as a possible option. JMHO.
In Missouri primaries you just ask for which ever parties ballot when you get to the table. If you say you are Independant, and there are no Independant candidates, the ballot you get might only have non party issues to vote. That would be for bonds and propositions, etc.
By the way, Khadji, congratulations on coming around!
In Florida you can do it on line. Search for your county election supervisor website.
If you want to drop your party affiliation in Pennsylvania, all you have to do is fill out a new voter registration card at least 30 days before the election. The county board of elections will notify the local Democratic party that you’re no longer One of Them, and that’s that. The converse is true; I went from independent to Democrat, and now I get the random visit from a canvasser. The first time that happened, I thought she was a process server when she called me by name.
commasense, that’s a common strategy in open primary states like Texas. Democrats will vote for a weak Republican and Republicans will vote for a weak Democrat. The end result is generally a situation where you get lousy candidates. :smack: I don’t know of any Republicans who register as Dems (or vice versa) in states where you register by party.
Robin