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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>The point of secret ballots is to avoid harassment from political opponents, is this not a problem over there?
The simple answer is: no, it isn’t. At least, I’ve never heard of anyone having such a problem.
Among other things, some people cross-register with no intent to actually vote for that party in the full election, as a way of gaining access to the party primary.
This is more common in states that are heavily dominated by one political party; a liberal in a conservative state might register with the conservatives in order to vote for a less-conservative primary candidate, and then abandon that candidate in the general election in favor of their preferred party.
I’ve considered doing this myself in the past, though never followed through, as my homestate is still relatively purple.
Ultimately, [this is a consequence of the first-past-the-post voting system](https://www.cgpgrey.com/blog/the-problems-with-first-past-the-post-voting-explained.html). The two-party system is a consequence of the way we count votes. I would love to abandon that system and move towards something like single transferable vote, but for that we would need consensus, and, well, America doesn’t have much of that these days.
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