Primaries and other elections

Factual Questions
1

Awhile back we had primaries here in Texas. I’ve never voted in one. The polling place nearest me was apparently for democrats. That got me to thinking…

My plan is to vote for not Trump. Earlier on there was a whole field which has now been whittled down. Oh, I guess I’m voting for Biden. If Bernie or Bloomberg or Warren had captured the nomination, that’s who I would have voted for. But again, I plan to vote for not Trump so it isn’t critical.

I have never joined a party and my voter registration card shows nothing to indicate that I did.

My questions…

  1. If I had in fact gone to that primary, wouldn’t that be telling any observer that I’m a Democrat? I’m not, per se, but that would seem to taint the “secret ballot.”

  2. Could I also go vote in a Republican primary? If so, wouldn’t voters try to sabotage the other party by picking candidates that couldn’t win?

  3. Aren’t most voters likely to vote for a mixture? They like this one for governor…he’s repub…but they like that guy for senator, he’s a dem. So why the separate primaries? Given a chance I would vote for not Trump in a Republican primary.

In my defense for civic ignorance (and irresponsibility) I blame the electoral college. If you live in a state where your guy is going to win…stay home. If he can’t possibly win…stay home.

2

Texas is an open primary state. Anyone can vote in any party’s primary during an election. It has no bearing on which primary you voted in last time or which primary you can choose to vote in next time.

Nope. You get one bite at the apple each round. If there’s a run off election from the primary you only get to vote in it if you voted in that party’s primary first. But in an open primary state like Texas anyone can cross party lines and vote strategically in order to sabotage the other side. It can happen but rarely has an impact on the results.

This is a primary, you’re there to pick a slate of candidates for a party. The general election is where you vote for the office. There are a few states that have nonpartisan primaries where everyone is running against each other without reference to party, but they are rare.

The primary isn’t a general election. It’s how parties in the US generally select their candidates. It’s implemented by the states, but it’s run by and for the parties.

3

Moderator Instructions

How you plan to vote is irrelevant in this forum.

To anyone who responds to this thread, stick strictly to the factual aspects of the election process.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

4

Sorry, mod, didn’t mean to stump for or against anybody. But I thought it illustrated my position as far as why I was reluctant to vote in a particular primary.

Thanks Telemark. That seems to verify what I thought.

5

Nobody in America ever joins a party.* Parties don’t exist as meaningful entities as they do in other countries. Nevertheless, parties maintain a public fiction that they are composed of like-minded citizens. That’s why they request, in most but not all states, that you register as a party member.

That means next to nothing in reality. You’re not a member of anything. You’re just an address to target mail at. You have few rights, no special standing, nothing at all except the ability, in most but not all states, to vote in primaries. (States with open primaries don’t even care about that.)

You wouldn’t think this is much of a burden. My check mark went into the records 52 years ago and I haven’t needed to do anything about it since. Even so, party registration (again, *not *membership) is enough to keep all but the tiniest numbers from voting to sabotage an opposing party. Since most primaries get a ridiculously small percentage of the eligible population to turn out, this other small percentage is meaningless virtually all of the time.

But you also need to remember that primaries are used to pick all candidates a party runs for all positions. You don’t primary just for the president every four years. If you live anywhere typical, you have the opportunity to vote in primaries for state, county, and local races every single year. If you have a party these races are extremely important. You should care who your party’s candidate is for mayor or governor or judge or district attorney or any of the dozens of other possible races. A party registration is your ticket into all of them.

If you are not committed to a party, but care about a particular race and its candidates you can always go to your local county election board and change your registration, if your state requires that for primary voting. As said above, you can only vote in one primary in any given year, but you can shift from year to year as often as you want.

None of that means you have to actually vote for your party’s primary winner in the general election. You are free to vote for anyone of any party or to write in a name.

And absolutely none of this has anything to do with the Electoral College, which cares about nothing other than who got the most votes in your state for the slate of presidential electors.

*At one time you could indeed be a card-carrying member of the Communist Party. This meant nothing at all to a state’s election board.

6

This is where you got it wrong. The primaries are for both parties. Each polling place has ballots for both primaries. Sometimes, there are other issues (usually, state constitutional amendments in Texas) to be voted on. You tell the polling official which primary you wish to vote in and they stamp your voter registration card “Democrat” or “Republican” so if there is a run-off, they will know which primary you voted in (at least, it was that way a few years ago). Primary elections are held every two years and you will get a new voter registration card every two years, so it makes no difference which party’s primary you voted in last time. Each time, you have a new card.

Regardless of which primary you vote in (yes, the parties do keep track who votes in their primary), who you vote for is still secret.

7

Thanks for the reply. My point about the electoral college is that if the system deterred me from voting for a president in an election, I would be even less likely to vote in a primary. You’re right though, that I should take more interest in other offices as well.

8

Ah. It is what it is I guess, but I’d rather not even reveal which party. It’s interesting that you can switch with each new card, though.

9

That’s in Texas, it’s not true in all states. Some states have closed primaries, where you must be a declared member of one party for a period of time before you’re allowed to vote in their primary. That stops the ability to switch primaries based on which races are most interesting to your each election cycle. Semi-closed primaries require some declaration before the election, but they allow independents to choose as well, and they often make it trivially easy to switch.

Some election cycles a party may choose to not have a primary for President, for example. This year many state parties eliminated the Republican presidential primary.

10

So in Texas you have to bring your voter registration card to the polls with you? Because here they send you a registration card before every election but it serves no practical function. You look at it and say “yup, I guess I’m registered” and throw it in your junk pile. No one ever asks to see it (although a recent card can be used as proof of address when getting a new drivers license).

11

I think you mean these aren’t government entities.

Political parties are actual organizations with memberships, meetings, and platforms. The major parties require membership to participate in party activities such as nominating candidates and financing campaigns. There is a organizational hierarchy of party leaders, and then state and national level organization. Unfortunately the government does regulate political parties, but luckily only at a superficial level.

The parties do consist of like minded people, though the similarities of their minds is primarily based on wanting their party’s candidates to win elections.

12

It’s likely that the primary near you was being talked about as a Democratic primary, because (as is typical for the party with an incumbent in the White House) the Republican primary for President was not seriously contested (whether it’s not contested at all, or contested only by a no-hope candidate, is largely immaterial). But there were probably still other races for which the Republican primary was contested. If you cared which Republican was going to be running for your House seat, or for the state legislature, or whatever, you would still have asked for the Republican primary ballot, even though it didn’t have the Presidential race on it.

13

No, you don’t have to take your card with you in Texas.

14

IIRC from the news, many state Republican parties were cancelling the presidential primaries for Republican as there was no strong contest in that party against Trump. I assume too that if there is a Senate race (two every 6 years) it may or may not involve a Republican challenger to a Republican incumbent - if not, then likely not a contest (or a rubber stamp?)

As a result, the only thing left is congress and state/local. That may not be as newsworthy and may be what confuses OP about the primary.

Plus, do all states run on the same cycle as the federal election? I seem to recall some states having their primaries and elections in the odd-numbered years?

15

There are non-profit organizations in each state that run and control the party nominating, campaigning, and voting apparatus. However, your registering for a party is irrelevant to those. You have no say in who runs those organizations, can’t vote for officers, don’t know anything about financing, or have any formalized path to do anything about them even as a registered voter. By any definition, you are not a member of that organization.

Obviously, some people do run those organizations and it wouldn’t be surprising if they were all registered party members. (Could they make that a legal requirement? I honestly don’t know.) But it doesn’t work the other way.

16

That is incorrect. You should look at the by-laws of the New York State Democratic Committeeand New York State Election law. The parties are operated by it’s members, and membership simply requires a designation in state voter registration.

17

It has always been my understanding that American parties are much less member-driven organisations than parties in other countries, e.g. in Europe. Such parties are incorporated societies with proper members, the same way, say, the Audubon Society is a member-driven organisation: You become a member by signing and submitting a membership application form (to the party itself, not to some state election board). The local chapter of the party vets the application and decides to accept or reject it (the latter is rare, but they do it sometimes if they feel the application is fraudulent). Once you’re a member you pay regular membership dues, you get a nice little physical card, and you get to vote in election for boards and party conferences at the national and/or local level, depending on how the party’s own statutes define these processes. If you misbehave, the party can kick you out, even though that is very rare and always a controversial step. All these processes are defined and run by the parties themselves.

There is certainly some kind of organisational structure of American political parties with committees at the local, state, and federal level, but I doubt they have this formalised society-type character that European parties have.

18

Missouri holds two separate primary elections in presidential election years. In 2020, the Presidential primary is March 10 and the general primary is Aug 4.

19

All I can say is that I’m never at any time seen any evidence of this. If a public notice ever has been issued it was in the proverbial filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying “Beware of the Leopard.

20

I was a political consultant (friend) of a candidate in New York. He had to challenge the candidate selected by the local committee through that consisted of citizens of the district, he needed to collect signatures of registered Democrats in the district, who could sign only one such petition. His signatures were challenged by the Democratic committee, we went to court, he lost because he hadn’t filed the forms on time. The whole process was there and continues. You can’t run as a candidate in New York and many other states under existing parties without satisfying their processes.