This is another thing that has long perplexed me - the fact that US voters are registered Democrat, Republican or Independent (although I now understand there's a 'non-affiliated' choice too). Here, and I suspect in other European countries too, I simply register to Vote - as I did a few weeks ago after a reminder from my local Council. I popped on the website, filled in my details and was done in a minute or so. Simple really (and that's another thing I don't understand about American politics - problems with voter registration. Here it's difficult NOT to register). The only thing I could think of is voting in the Primaries. Presumably Democrats can't vote in a Republican Primary and vice versa - which makes sense (although the idea of Primaries voted on by the average voter seem a 'bit' strange to me). But is there anything to stop a registered Republican re-registering as a Democrat, voting in a Democratic Primary and then re-re-registering as a Republican again? Help from my American readers would be appreciated!
Oh, and one more thing! I've been registered to vote since I was 18, so 44 years now. I voted Tory/Conservative in my first two elections (much to my present distaste). I've voted Labour most of the rest of the time but I've also voted Liberal, Liberal Democrat, Green, and Independent. Thank goodness I didn't have to keep changing my voter registration! [lol]
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I don't know what effect declaring your party allegiance at voter registration has (I registered indie back in the day), but it doesn't prevent you from voting in the other party's primary. In Alabama, the way primaries work is that any registered voter can ask for either party's ballot, but they can only vote in ONE party's ballot and if there's a runoff, that's the same ballot by extension. I can't vote in the Republican primary and then in the Democratic primary runoff. Some counties are so dominated by one party or another (there are no local Republicans on my home county's ballots, for instance) that people sometimes have to vote in the other party's primary to have any voice whatsoever. Who you're registered with has no bearing on who you can vote for, since the ballots are anonymous. So...you can vote in the Democratic primary, vote in the Democratic runoff, and then on election day, vote for the Republican running against the Democrat.
Amusing, our big-election ballots always give us the option of donating to either party. I always want to write "Like hell" or "NEVER", but I don't want to void the ballot. :p
Years ago I 'spoiled' my voting paper in (I think) a Local Election. I went down the list and found that I couldn't justify voting for ANY of them. I wanted to write "None of these Lying Bastards" across the whole thing but decided in the end just to write the word "NO" in every candidates box. It made me feel better for a while at least. These days I have zero idea who I'm going to vote for (if anyone) when election time comes around.
I don't get it, either. But, it's easier, of course, when you know what people want to vote, makes gerrymandering easier. Over here, our voting districts NEVER change, they are the same as our districts. I live in quite a conservative area, so you can usually predict the winner but our votes don't get lost, they still go for the gneral election. But that's beside the point, if more people in the country vote for one party, they win, no matter how many disctricts they take.
And yes, we don't even have to register to vote, we get the inviation from our village or town, where we registered. And that is, of course a problem in the UK, since you don't have to register. But when we moved away, that was just in an election year, I called them and told them that we wouldn't be in the country anymore on election day and they said, we'd still have to fill in the form (pre-internet on paper), otherwise we would be fined. So, there you have your registration. ;)
Boundaries don't change much here either. I think they try to have comparative populations in each area so rural constituencies are MUCH bigger than urban ones but once they're in place that's pretty much it. A bit might change around the edges but not very much and it's all covered by a (supposedly) independent commission so we don't get too many arguments. I've seen some of the boundary maps in US counties and they are truly bizarre! Gerrymandering for the WIN!
Here, as you probably know, we get a letter from the local council sent to every household asking for details of people over 18 or approaching voting age. They arrive every few years or about 6 months before an election. These days there's a few codes in the letter than you pop into a website and you're done. Then you get a voting card through the mail and you're ready.
We DO like our Forms here. You even have to fill one in to say that you don't need to fill one it because you're no longer here! [lol]
Don't tell me about forms. Germans are the world champions in forms. LOL
But honestly, after living abroad for most of my life, I couldn't believe how much bureaucracy there is over here.
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