In a lot of countries voting is by secret ballot so why in the US do people have their affiliation publicly registered? The point of secret ballots is to avoid harassment from political opponents, is this not a problem over there?
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I’ve never been harassed for my party registration, no. Not seen as a problem.
Being registered to a party doesn’t mean you always vote for that party. Maybe you just like voting in their primaries.
Not everyone does. Being registered to a party is the main way you get to vote in the elections internal to the party – like who the Democratic presidential nominee will be.
Secret ballot is not the same as party registration. You are under no obligation to vote for the candidates from the party you have registered for.
>In a lot of countries voting is by secret ballot so why in the US do people have their affiliation publicly registered?
Their affiliation is only registered essentially *because* they went to public register in order to declare that registration; they’re explicitly choosing to have their affiliation be publicly known. You don’t have to do that when you sign up to vote.
The precise rules vary by state, but generally speaking your affiliation is only publicly known if you both a) register with a party and b) vote in that party’s primary elections.
The actual votes at the end of the day are still secret.
They have elections before the elections where they nominate their presidential candidate, so they’d need to be registered if they want to vote there.
Also, it’s still a secret ballot – you don’t have to actually vote for the party you’re registered in
It’s so you can vote in party primaries. Consequently, being “registered” as something doesn’t mean as much as some people think it does. I’m currently registered in a party I don’t vote for.
They dont. Party registration is not publicly avaliable information nor is it at all required to vote.
All registering for a party does is let you vote in that parties private unofficial pre elections, and you van often do that even if you arent registered so long as you agree to not vote in the other parties pre election.
In my state, for primaries you can vote in the republican primary or the democrat primary, but not both. I am an independent but I choose to vote in the republican primary to keep nutjobs like trump (or people who vehemently support him) off the ballot. I wonder if that classifies me as a “registered” republican.
>The point of secret ballots is to avoid harassment from political opponents,
We do have secret ballots. No one knows who I voted for.
>is this not a problem over there?
I’m almost 60 years old. I’ve never been harassed because somone looked up my voter registration and went after me. No one I know has experienced it. Where I live, the most that happens is pror to a primary a candidate might reach out to voters registered to their own party and ask for their vote in the primary
I see a lot of correct but incorrect information on here – because it is very state-specific. But party registration is 90% related to the primary elections.
Primary elections are publicly funded here, and depending on your state, you may have closed, semi-closed, and open primaries.
For open primaries, you can walk into your polling place, ask for any parties’ primary ballot, and vote for that candidate regardless of your party status. In these states, registering with a particular party is more of a personal preference than anything. Example: I was a Missouri voter in 2016, I was a registered Independent, and I voted in the Democratic Primary for President.
For closed primaries, you must be registered as a member of that party. Example: I’m a current Wyoming resident, and Republicans win pretty much every election. So I am a registered Republican so my vote actually has a say, even though I almost never vote for Republicans in the general election.
For semi-closed primaries, it is very state specific. Some of the states have both closed and open primary for parties, because they let the parties themselves decide, and other parties and states may choose to allow Independents to vote in their elections (but not other registered parties).
You’re right. Our ballots are secret – so just because you are a registered Republican doesn’t mean you always, or even ever vote for a Republican. But for states that publish this information it can be helpful to pollsters to determine which registered party members are voting. (For example – in XYZ state, 60% of Democrats voted and 70% of Republicans voted – so that may benefit Republicans in the election results),
I’ve never really seen party registration used as a weapon against others. The only exception is in a situation like if a Republican candidate was a Democrat until 6 months ago, that can be used against them in the primary campaigns.
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