Democratic Primaries
Related: About this forumTexas is an open primary. Is there a way to know how many GOP and Independents vote
strategically in the Dem primary?
When you show up to your polling location, youll 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 cant 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 partys 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 partys 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/
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
progree
(10,864 posts)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
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Ghost Dog
(16,881 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Chainfire
(17,304 posts)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.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
NoPasaran
(17,291 posts)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.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden