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Ghost Dog

(16,881 posts)
Wed Mar 4, 2020, 05:39 AM Mar 2020

Texas is an open primary. Is there a way to know how many GOP and Independents vote

strategically in the Dem primary?

Unlike voters in most other states, Texans don’t sign up with a political party when they register to vote. That’s because Texas is one of 17 states with open primaries, which means regardless of which party voters identify with, they can choose from year to year which party’s nominees they’d like to select in the primary election.

When you show up to your polling location, you’ll decide whether you want a Democratic or Republican primary ballot. But after choosing a side in the primary, you have to stay in that lane through the runoff. You can’t vote Republican in the primary election and then participate in a runoff election between top Democratic candidates. That said, voting in a primary does not commit you to vote for a particular candidate in the general election. You can vote for either party’s candidate in the November election.

Voters who live in states with closed primaries are required to register with a political party in order to vote in that party’s primary. If you wanted to vote in the Republican primary in New York, you have to register as a Republican. Oftentimes, third-party voters are locked out of the Republican and Democratic primaries. But some states, like Oklahoma, are a bit of a hybrid and let independent voters choose which primaries they want to participate in...

https://www.texastribune.org/2020/02/28/texas-open-primaries-republican-democrat-vote/
If I were to vote in a presidential
primary today, I would vote for:
Undecided
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Texas is an open primary. Is there a way to know how many GOP and Independents vote (Original Post) Ghost Dog Mar 2020 OP
Don't know this much detail. But in Minnesota, any fuckhead RepubliCON can choose to vote in the Dem progree Mar 2020 #1
It does seem rather odd. Nt Ghost Dog Mar 2020 #2
I wonder how many Repbulicans Chainfire Mar 2020 #3
There really is no way of knowing for sure NoPasaran Mar 2020 #4
 

progree

(10,864 posts)
1. Don't know this much detail. But in Minnesota, any fuckhead RepubliCON can choose to vote in the Dem
Wed Mar 4, 2020, 06:16 AM
Mar 2020

Last edited Wed Mar 4, 2020, 08:14 AM - Edit history (1)

primaries and make a mess of it. As I'm extremely very sure that a huge number did.

My neighbor is a right-wing idiot and said he and his wife were going to vote today. I didn't ask for any more information, but doubted that they were going to bother with the stupid exercise on the Republican side of voting for Trump or writing in someone. So very very probably they were going to fuck up the Dem primaries as they saw it. Very very probably they saw Sanders as the weakest candidate for their hero to run against, and so they probably voted for him on the Dem primary ballot

If I were to vote in a presidential
primary today, I would vote for:
Joe Biden
 

Ghost Dog

(16,881 posts)
2. It does seem rather odd. Nt
Wed Mar 4, 2020, 08:07 AM
Mar 2020
If I were to vote in a presidential
primary today, I would vote for:
Undecided
 

Chainfire

(17,304 posts)
3. I wonder how many Repbulicans
Wed Mar 4, 2020, 08:49 AM
Mar 2020

I wonder how many Republicans are willing to go to the polls just to play spoiler. I would think that if the numbers were really high, it would have been enough to bring Texas to Sanders, who they perceive as the weakest Democrat candidate in the general election.

Even though I think that open primaries are absurd, if not unconstitutional, because outsiders can help pick another parties candidate, if I were a staunch Republican with a fixed candidate, I would have gone to the polls to wreak havoc on the Democrats by voting for their weakest candidate. It would be no skin off my teeth as I would be going to the polls anyway; I have never missed an opportunity vote, thereby justifying my right to complain.

If I were to vote in a presidential
primary today, I would vote for:
Joe Biden
 

NoPasaran

(17,291 posts)
4. There really is no way of knowing for sure
Wed Mar 4, 2020, 09:06 AM
Mar 2020

As the article said, primary voters don't have to declare their choice until they're actually at the polls. (And as a sometime elections worker, you'd be surprised how many voters don't even know they have to pick one party or the other in the primary.)

Every cycle, there's a lot of second-guessing wondering how many voters deliberately messed with the results. But since there's no Central Office of Electoral Mischief, there's no grand strategy involved, just individual Bubbas thinking they're the cleverest guy ever, voting for whom they perceive as the weakest candidate for their guy to run against. And meanwhile the Bubba next door does the same thing but decides that someone else will be the weakest candidate. So I believe that for the most part the results cancel themselves out and don't affect the totals all that much.

Mostly, I worry about the members of my own party who are barking mad.

If I were to vote in a presidential
primary today, I would vote for:
Joe Biden
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