2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: We Should Only Let Democrats Choose Our Nominee [View all]crazycatlady
(4,492 posts)Just don't pay enough attention to politics or just don't give a shit enough to affiliate themselves with a party. Turnout in (non presidential) primaries is often pathetic.
And very few people are technically registered as independent, the term is 'no party affiliation' or 'unaffiliated'. If someone does not write a party in or check a box on their voter registration form, it defaults to independent. Other unaffiliated voters (my NY self) became interested in politics after they registered and just were too lazy to update their registration (if there's no competitive primary, there really isn't a point). And partisan registration is not always accurate. THe first time I ever phone banked, I was calling seniors (all registered Democrats) and I had the N word used to describe President Obama. This person was probably a Demosaur who's been GOP for awhile but never changed their registration.
Crossover voting does happen but I don' think it is a big enough problem to change the laws.