So, some states require you to register with a political party in order to vote in the primary. Do they have a warning on the voter registration form that warns people they won’t be able to participate in the primaries?
I ask this because I know so many people will always check independent or no party preference because they’d like to feel they’re above all that. Then, the primaries come around and they’re shut out because you have to pick a party affiliation 30 days in advance or something similar.
I know each state is different and many don’t register by party, you just pick the party you want on that day.
I’ve lived in open, closed, and semi-closed primary states and it’s all very clear to anyone registering to vote what the rules are. People may forget, never bother to read the information, and just have moved from another state, but the information is freely available when registering.
New York is closed–i.e., you have to belong to that party in order to vote in the primary. In fact, if you change parties, you can’t vote in that new party’s primary unless you changed it around a year before.
The newspaper and TV stations remind folks leading up to the primaries about the rules and who can and can’t vote in the primaries.
I’m a registered Republican and I don’t vote in most primaries, but that’s because most candidates (local) are running unopposed, or it’s already pretty much decided.
I’m in NY, which as TheCuse noted is a closed primary state. You never had to wait a full year after switching parties to vote in a primary–to vote in the April 2016 primary you had to be registered as a member of that party by the previous October, so six months was about the max–and in any case that’s now changed. There’s now a 2-month lead-in, so you have until February of 2020 to reregister if you aim to vote in the April presidential primary.
As for whether they “warn” you, my answer is the same as Telemark’s–in my state at least the rules are very well publicized. In 2016 there were a lot of complaints from Sanders and Trump would-be voters to the effect that no one had told them they would need to change their registrations and that they had therefore been effectively disenfranchised. Really, though, they had no one to blame but themselves–the info was not hidden at all.
In my own case, I registered originally in NY back in 1983 as a result of a door-to-door canvass for new voters. I had lived in a different state previously and was registered there–that state didn’t have party registration, so this idea was a bit new. I was more independent-minded in those days than I am today, so said I’d not enroll with any party. “Are you sure?” they asked, and explained that doing so would keep me from voting in the '84 presidential primary, among others. I foolishly stuck to my guns. Never did get to vote in that primary (sorry, Walter), but it was my own damn fault.
California is running an intensive education program right now to make sure that people know how the primaries work. The Republicans only allow Republicans to vote in their primary, but every other party allows every party’s voters to vote in their combined primary. But if you are registered as No Party, you can’t vote in their primary. The state is warning No Party registrees that they need to register with a party to vote in the primary.
I used to participate in voter registration drives at Florida State University and Florida was a closed primary state. But we couldn’t say anything if someone picked no party preference when filling out the form, I believe we could tell them about primaries if they asked which some out of state students did. The drives were held as a joint project of the College Democrats/College Republicans/the campus environmental group/student government and probably a couple of other groups. We had to be strictly non partisan, wear an FSU shirt or other neutral clothes and make sure no pins visible on your backpack at the table.
WV doesn’t have an open primary but each party allows independents to vote in their primary (however, they only get to pick one). It used to be a closed primary and there was no warning.
However, during the primary election, there were non-partisan elections like for the local school board or constitutional amendments and the like. So if you were a Republican, the poll workers saw that, and handed you a Republican ballot along with the non-partisan questions. Same with the Dems.
If you were an independent, you got the non-partisan ballot only.