Why register as Republican/Democrat? (US)

Factual Questions
1

Frankly, I don’t get it- why do people register as belonging to a particular political party? Are there hidden benefits? Do you get a set of dishes, or a secret decoder ring when you register?

I guess I don’t understand voting for a particular party, as opposed to voting for a politician based on his/her political beliefs. If I like a politician, I vote for him- whether he be Republican, Democrat, Independant, or a three-eyed Martian. I will confess that I tend to like Democrats more than I like Republicans- but if a Republican comes along who says the things I like, he’ll get my vote. I don’t vote along party lines.

It seems to me that a lot of the problems in the US today are the result of the huge schism between the two major (only, really) political parties. Why do voters maintain that schism?

2

If you want to participate in primaries (in some states), or nominating committees, you have to be a member of the party.

3

[QUOTE=Lightnin’]
Frankly, I don’t get it- why do people register as belonging to a particular political party? Are there hidden benefits? Do you get a set of dishes, or a secret decoder ring when you register?
[/QUOTE]

I think that in some states you can’t vote in the party primary unless you’re registered with the party. Otherwise, yeah, it doesn’t really give you any advantage.

4

Lightnin’, this looks like a General Question (that has already been pretty well answered, although we can probably find posters to expand on what has been presented). Did you actually want to debate some point? Or were you simply looking for the answer to your question?

5

It also can matter for poll workers. My grandmother worked the polls every year and the party of the person in office determined which parties members could preside over that poll site.

6

I also think it’s a good idea to support a party that better aligns with your principles. Can you honestly say that your interests and beliefs are not better represented by one party over another?

As to voting for a party versus an individual, I wouldn’t suggest that you vote for someone you do not feel you should. However, legislative agendas and, in essence, control of the course of governmental function rests with the party in power. I would be perfectly willing to vote for a Democrat who wasn’t an ideal candidate for me because he or she would nevertheless help the Democrats control what happens, simply because they generally do so in a way that fits with my beliefs and values, and the Republicans clearly do not.

7

[QUOTE=tomndebb]
Lightnin’, this looks like a General Question (that has already been pretty well answered, although we can probably find posters to expand on what has been presented). Did you actually want to debate some point? Or were you simply looking for the answer to your question?
[/QUOTE]

I’m looking for answers, which would indeed be better served in General Questions, but I figured it probably wouldn’t take too long before it devolved into arguing (as most political threads seem to), so I posted it here in Great Debates, so I tried to save you some time. If you think it’d be better in GQ, I wouldn’t mind.

8

I usually vote for the person, not the party, but **Hentor **raises a good point in that there are times when it does make sense to vote for the party, not the person. Like now. I live in safely Democratic district, so my vote doesn’t much matter, but I would consider voting for a Democrat with pretty divergent views from my own in order to have them get control of the House this time around. We need an opposition party to rein in Bush since his party is unwilling to do it.

9

In my state, we do not register as a member of any particular party. We simply register to vote. At the polls for a primary election, you sign the book, and then are allowed to request a ballot for the primary of your choice. You can vote in a Democrat primary one year, and a Republican primary the next year if you like.

There is some pending litigation about this system. The controversy comes from allegations that members of one party are voting for a weak candidate in the other party primary in an effort to benefit the candidate they really support in the general election. Last I heard there was a federal case pending in one part of the state, and possibly another case in state court elsewhere.

10

[QUOTE=Oakminster]
In my state, we do not register as a member of any particular party. We simply register to vote. At the polls for a primary election, you sign the book, and then are allowed to request a ballot for the primary of your choice. You can vote in a Democrat primary one year, and a Republican primary the next year if you like.
[/QUOTE]

But you still have to register with a party don’t you? How do candidates get on the primary ballot, if not with signatures of party members? Who sits on the nominating committees, or is there an open primary for every office? Who decides who gets to be the in the Wankerhauser delegation, assuming Wankerhauser wins the presidential primary, out of the dozens who would like to fill each spot? Who chairs your state party, and each of the county parties?

11

OK, everybody. Anyone who wants to argue about this, start a new therwad in GD (or the Pit. This thread is moving to GQ.

[ /Moderating ]

12

[QUOTE=saoirse]
But you still have to register with a party don’t you? How do candidates get on the primary ballot, if not with signatures of party members?

[/quote]

In most states you only need signatures of registered (or even just qualified) voters to appear on the ballot.

All of those things are internal party organization functions performed by people who are already politicians. Being part of an actual party organization is an entirely separate issue from registering to vote with a particular party.

13

[QUOTE=Oakminster]

There is some pending litigation about this system. The controversy comes from allegations that members of one party are voting for a weak candidate in the other party primary in an effort to benefit the candidate they really support in the general election. Last I heard there was a federal case pending in one part of the state, and possibly another case in state court elsewhere.
[/QUOTE]

But if a person has to register thier party prior to the primary, what is to stop them from registering as a republican when they have every intention of voting democratic in the general election?

Not just a hypothetical question, as I do exactly this. My congressional district unfailingly elects a republican. If I am to have any influance at all over who represents me, it is only in the primary that I can do so. Plus I live in a caucus state with late caucuses, so national primary races are long since decided by the time of the caucuses.

Also, for a time, the data base the city police were tapped into on thier laptops showed which party you were registered with. I know enough police officers personally to be able to generalize about thier political leanings.

14

Party can also be a handy shorthand for views, for candidates you haven’t researched thoroughly. When I’m deciding whom to vote for for President, or a senator, I’ll research the individual candidates. But then I go to the polls, and there are spots on the ballot for county commisioners, city council, and the like, on whom I haven’t bothered to do much homework. So it’s simplest in those cases to vote on party lines, and have a better expectation of getting the candidates you’d like than if you just left those blank or chose randomly.

15

[QUOTE=saoirse]
But you still have to register with a party don’t you?
[/QUOTE]

Not necessarily. I do not belong to any political party. Yet, for the state primary I must select a specific party ballot and from that ballot vole for those candidates I would like to see for that party’s choice on the general election ballot. For the general election, one may select any candidate from any party, including voting across party lines for the various offices on the general election ballot.

In selecting the party ballot for the primary, I do not contact the political party. My mark is only on the ballot and that mark is not predicated on any fact that I am or I am not really a member of the party in question.

As Oakminster points out, one can play off on this primary election ballot party affiliation and attempt to stack the deck. In other words, if I want Candidate Tweedledee from Party Alpha to be my representaive, I may have two options at my disposal.

If there is a tight primary race with Tweedledee (my candidate), I will cast my primary ballot fot Tweedledee, and if they win the primary, do it again during the general election.

However, if Tweedledee is a shoe-in for the primary, it may be my best interests to vote for the weaker candidate of Party Beta (Tweedledum) so that in the general election there is a perceived strength that my real candidate (Tweedledee) is going up against the weaker candidate (Tweedledum) of the opposing party.

16

In the U.S. registering to vote for a party in an election does not equal joining a political party.

To join a party, you sign up with that party, pay whatever dues there may be, get a fancy red, white and blue card, a set of dishes, etc. Because you are a registered, dues-paying member of a party, you get to help select party committee memebers, you can be elected as a delegate to the party convention and so on.

In my state, when you register a party preference for a primary election, you get a ballot to vote for that party’s candidates in that election. It doesn’t have any authority over any future election, or anything else the party does.

Again, in my state, if there are non-partisan issues on the ballot during a primary election (could be tax issues or municipal elections) I can request a non-partisan ballot that has only those non-partisan issues on it.

As some posters have noted, it sometimes even makes sense to vote in the primary of the party you wouldn’t normally affiliate. In states with large Democratic or Republican majorities, all the real action is in the primary contest.

Conversely, even if you are a die-hard registered member of a political party, when the general election rols around, no one goes into the voting booth with you to see how you really voted.

17

Registering with a party and voting for the party are two different things. You can vote for a party without being registered.

Not every state requires a party registration (when I lived in North Dakota, there was no voter registration at all. You just showed up at the polls) but the ones that do still allow you to check a box for “Independent” or “no party affiliation” or something similar.

Unless you really care about voting in Primaries (which I do not), all a party registration is going to get you is a never ending barrage of fundraising spam and junk mail.

18

[QUOTE=kunilou]
In the U.S. registering to vote for a party in an election does not equal joining a political party.

To join a party, you sign up with that party, pay whatever dues there may be, get a fancy red, white and blue card, a set of dishes, etc. Because you are a registered, dues-paying member of a party, you get to help select party committee memebers, you can be elected as a delegate to the party convention and so on.

[/QUOTE]

I don’t know about your state, but I don’t know anywhere that you join a political party with dues and all that (maybe the Greens and Libertarians).

At least in PA, committee people are selected in the primary elections by people registered with that party, as are state delegates and delegates to the national conventions. And in order to get on the ballot you only need 10 petition signatures, not a monetary donation. You don’t have to pay anything once elected although you are obligated to support the party’s endorsed candidates and nominees (at least publicly).

19

[QUOTE=kunilou]
In the U.S. registering to vote for a party in an election does not equal joining a political party.

To join a party, you sign up with that party, pay whatever dues there may be, get a fancy red, white and blue card, a set of dishes, etc. Because you are a registered, dues-paying member of a party, you get to help select party committee memebers, you can be elected as a delegate to the party convention and so on.

In my state, when you register a party preference for a primary election, you get a ballot to vote for that party’s candidates in that election. It doesn’t have any authority over any future election, or anything else the party does.

Again, in my state, if there are non-partisan issues on the ballot during a primary election (could be tax issues or municipal elections) I can request a non-partisan ballot that has only those non-partisan issues on it.

As some posters have noted, it sometimes even makes sense to vote in the primary of the party you wouldn’t normally affiliate. In states with large Democratic or Republican majorities, all the real action is in the primary contest.

Conversely, even if you are a die-hard registered member of a political party, when the general election rols around, no one goes into the voting booth with you to see how you really voted.
[/QUOTE]

Bull. Registering for a party is as much as joining a party as you can get in the US. Other countries (Australia, I think is one of them) require dues payments and what-not, but all the major US parties (Republicans, Dems, Greens and Libs) will accept voter registration as “membership”. Functionally, participation is required, whether it is getting involved in local party activities or running for elected office with party support. You might pay money to support activities, or buy your plates, but not for claiming to be a “member”.
Are you stating that joining a political party would, of necessity, force you to vote for their candidates?

20

As an example, here is a cite from the Libertarian Party web page. Like all party websites, there’s an insinuation that you’ll be more of a member if you donate, but they come out and state most clearly that there is no donation required to “join”.
https://www.lp.org/members/newmember.shtml