I have been reading several threads about politics and voting etc. A couple of times, I saw people mentioning something about registering to vote as a Republican or Democrat. In the state where I normally vote (Texas), you just register, you don’t have to “declare” or whatever the terminology is.
The only thing that I have ever seen there that “brands” a voter one way or another is voting in a primary. You can only vote in one, so when you vote in a primary, they have a stamp that they mark your voter registration form, identifying which primary you voted in, to prevent you from driving down the street and voting in another primary. (Also, I think, there are stipulations for voting in a run-off primary. IIRC, if you voted in the Democratic primary, you were not allowed to vote in the Republican run-off.)
Does the state (or province or shire(?)) you live in require you to specify one party or another? How does that work? I believe that being “branded” raises no restrictions on how you vote in general elections, or even primary (I recall Republicans complaining about voters registered as Democrats voting in the Republican primaries, trying to select candidates that would not be able to stand up to a Democratic candidate). So what does this accomplish?