Super Tuesday

[Warped]

OK, so the News is full of stories about Super Tuesday and I'm sure many of you are groaning at the thought of yet more about it when all you wanted was some idle chatter about watches and the like.

However, for the benefit of those of us on the outside looking in, I have some questions about how the system works:

1. Can any US citizen (whether a member of a party or not) vote in the Primaries?
2. Are you required to prove your membership of a party to vote in its primary?
3. Can you be a member of more than one party?
4. Can you vote in both primaries?
5. Following on from 4, above if the two parties have their primaries in the same area on different dates, can you change parties between?

[abigsecret]

All I know is that you a. have to be a citizen, b. you have to be registered to vote, c. you can change parties at the voting booth, and d. I'm pretty sure you can only vote once....

[Paulie]

1. Rules are set by each state, so 50 different sets of rules plus territories. And not all states have primaries, some have a caucus. Some states require you to declare before an election. Others have an open primary, where you ask for a specific party ballot.
2. See 1. Generally no. And most states you don't even need to provide ID, as long as you are registered and the signatures match on the voting roll books, that's all you need. Others require ID, birth certificate, etc to "prove" who you are, but there have been no documented cases of someone trying to fake a vote, though there is a perception that there is. People commit fraud when there is money involved, voting is "free".
3. For those states that have rules, you need to declare a party to get a ballot.
4. No, one vote per person. Though Chicago has a saying: "Vote early, and vote often." because back in the old days there were dead people voting... or someone would stand in a machine all day and pull the lever... On petitions for being added to the ballot, dead people still occasionally show up, but not too many.
5. See 4, but to save money, it's rare that they are on separate days. The costs of elections fall to government, so they try to keep it all together.

[Warped]

Thanks Paulie.

It seems, therefore, that you need to know the rules in each State for each party to be able to follow it properly.

Also, I understand that the Republicans have sort of winner-takes-all in each state whereas the Democrats use a proportional representation method.

Just one final question, after the primaries are over, do they make known how many voters voted for each party in each area and is this an indicator of the likely outcome in the presidential election?

[Paulie]

They have all sorts of stats at each county. If you count totals on each side per office, you can get a measure of turnout. But as for outcomes in the general, not really, as you can't predict who will stay home. A 50% turnout of the electorate for an election is barely an average nationwide... Though a 75:25 ratio of one party vs another in primary is a sign.

Then there are the issues of the electronic voting machines and their issues with not counting correctly, losing votes, co-opting the central tabulation computer, etc. For those with paper ballots (I had either to choose from this morning, I went with paper), the optical scanning machines also have issues with counting, but the laws of the states don't always require a hand recount, even for audit purposes, unless the results are off by a certain percentage.

As for delegate representation, you have it right. It's the delegates who choose the candidate at the convention, not necessarily the popular vote in primaries/caucuses.

For the general it's the electoral college delegates who chooses the president, not the popular vote. State offices I believe are popular vote totals, and maybe Congress/Senate, but again, it depends on the State rules.

[CoopJr]

Vote early and vote often

But as was mentioned, it depends on your state. Here in NJ, you must be registered with a party to vote in a Primary, I think they call it being "affiliated". In the general election, as long as you are registered to vote, you can vote.

Take New Hampshire, if you are a registered Independant there, you can vote either way, Dem or Repub.

In NJ, Governor Corzine went to vote this morning and his voting machine wouldnt work

[CoopJr]

Originally Posted by Warped

Also, I understand that the Republicans have sort of winner-takes-all in each state whereas the Democrats use a proportional representation method.

Yes, good point. That's why most people feel the Repub ticket will be set after today and the Dem fight will go on to the nominating convention.

[Warped]

Thanks guys.

Sounds quite complex (open, closed, semi-open, semi-closed etc), and quite amusing (machines not working?)

[mailman]

Here in NYS, you can only vote in your party in the primary. In the general election you can vote for any party.

[HYDROMAROC]

Originally Posted by Warped

OK, so the News is full of stories about Super Tuesday and I'm sure many of you are groaning at the thought of yet more about it when all you wanted was some idle chatter about watches and the like.

However, for the benefit of those of us on the outside looking in, I have some questions about how the system works:

1. Can any US citizen (whether a member of a party or not) vote in the Primaries?
2. Are you required to prove your membership of a party to vote in its primary?
3. Can you be a member of more than one party?
4. Can you vote in both primaries?
5. Following on from 4, above if the two parties have their primaries in the same area on different dates, can you change parties between?

I live in California, our primaries are today...

#1 Yes
#2 Yes and no... California law states that an individual may choose either to register with a specific political party, register as non-partisan, or decline to state.
#3 Refer to #2
#4 There is one primary in CA Feb 5th then we vote for president on November 4th
#5 There is only one "day" in Ca, don't know about ther other states


Hope that helps....