• kwomp2@sh.itjust.works
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    5 months ago

    Thanks alot.

    This is a confusing/interesting way of ballot secrecy. Basically it sounds like: You have to make a public statement for one political party, but you are allowed to lie. Thus it’s secret

    • mkwt@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      When the general election comes around, your ballot is still secret. So you can publicly declare a registration for the Republican party, but then vote secretly for the Democratic candidate. (Or vice versa)

      In the UK, if you want to have some effect on which candidates are selected by a party, you usually have to join the party and go to meetings and stuff. In the US, parties mostly use public primary elections to select candidates, and the primary elections are run by the same government bodies that run the general election. That’s why the voter registration cares about the party.

    • xenspidey@lemmy.zip
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      5 months ago

      In some States like mine, you become a party member by voting in the primary. There’s no form or anything. You ask for an R or D ballet and now you’re registered as that party until the next primary. There were a lot of D’s that were voting on the R primary to try and keep Trump out a few cycles ago.

    • prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works
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      5 months ago

      Party affiliation is not official, you’re a member of the party but that’s just a private organization.

      It’s like being a member of any other organization, membership required to take part in voting.

      Primary voting (selecting the candidate of the party ) is held by the parties and not by the state