Nnnnoooot exactly: All voters have to be registered in order to vote. To be technically correct about it, some states (like mine) require you to *declare* your party affiliation in order to register to vote, and you do have to be registered by no later than a certain date before an election if you haven't been registered before. Moreover, you are told at which polling place you must cast your ballot. But you're not registering to register your party *per se.*
You can register and never vote, but if you never register you are not allowed to vote: only registered voters may vote.
Having registered (and declared your party affiliation), you are not required to vote your party's ticket: theoretically, a Republican may (for some reason, right now I can't see Republicans doing this) vote a straight Democratic ticket, meaning they select the option on the ballot which automatically casts their votes for all the candidates for that party. Democrats may, also theoretically, vote a straight Republican ticket. But usually "straight tickets" or "straight ballots" are cast or voted for one's own party. Any registered voter may cast his ballot for the candidate of his choice regardless of party affiliation. Ballots may include candidates who are not of either of the two major political parties; usually those who show up are the Libertarians, The Green Party, and others, and some independent candidates. Not everyone is registered; if you're not registered you are not allowed to vote. Voting is always optional in this country, but it's mightily encouraged and in my opinion rightly so. (But we need to crack down on our elected officials and insist they represent the will of their constituents instead of private interest groups who happen to be in their constituency.) If you move to a new district (something many municipalities keep tabs on for you), you must vote at a new polling place.
Actually, the ballots remain secret. The government really has no need to know which citizen has voted for which candidate, because of the way the Electoral College works. Each state's representatives to the Electoral College are in all probability going to cast their electoral ballots for the candidate who received the majority of votes in that state, but they **are not bound by law to do so.** In other words, it's possible for a presidential candidate to win the popular vote in every state, and yet still lose the race for the White House (Al Gore had the popular vote almost straight across the board but lost to George Bush in the Electoral ballot-casting), but usually each state's Electoral College members will vote the will of the people.
Now, the way the connection between political affiliation and your health care is made is, the political information doesn't go directly to your medical records and the connection isn't obvious. At least, the one I'm thinking of may not be obvious to someone who doesn't live and/or vote here. But your name and party affiliation can be put into a huge, computerized directory, which, along with your address and your Social Security number will confirm who you are when it's checked against all the other Mary Joneses in the nation. And that Soc.Sec number is the key. In a computer age, it is possible to determine within minutes, or even seconds, with what political party "virginiadear" aligns herself, at least nominally (I do tend to vote by candidate, rather than by party.)
no subject
But you're not registering to register your party *per se.*
You can register and never vote, but if you never register you are not allowed to vote: only registered voters may vote.
Having registered (and declared your party affiliation), you are not required to vote your party's ticket: theoretically, a Republican may (for some reason, right now I can't see Republicans doing this) vote a straight Democratic ticket, meaning they select the option on the ballot which automatically casts their votes for all the candidates for that party. Democrats may, also theoretically, vote a straight Republican ticket.
But usually "straight tickets" or "straight ballots" are cast or voted for one's own party.
Any registered voter may cast his ballot for the candidate of his choice regardless of party affiliation.
Ballots may include candidates who are not of either of the two major political parties; usually those who show up are the Libertarians, The Green Party, and others, and some independent candidates.
Not everyone is registered; if you're not registered you are not allowed to vote. Voting is always optional in this country, but it's mightily encouraged and in my opinion rightly so. (But we need to crack down on our elected officials and insist they represent the will of their constituents instead of private interest groups who happen to be in their constituency.)
If you move to a new district (something many municipalities keep tabs on for you), you must vote at a new polling place.
Actually, the ballots remain secret. The government really has no need to know which citizen has voted for which candidate, because of the way the Electoral College works. Each state's representatives to the Electoral College are in all probability going to cast their electoral ballots for the candidate who received the majority of votes in that state, but they **are not bound by law to do so.** In other words, it's possible for a presidential candidate to win the popular vote in every state, and yet still lose the race for the White House (Al Gore had the popular vote almost straight across the board but lost to George Bush in the Electoral ballot-casting), but usually each state's Electoral College members will vote the will of the people.
Now, the way the connection between political affiliation and your health care is made is, the political information doesn't go directly to your medical records and the connection isn't obvious. At least, the one I'm thinking of may not be obvious to someone who doesn't live and/or vote here.
But your name and party affiliation can be put into a huge, computerized directory, which, along with your address and your Social Security number will confirm who you are when it's checked against all the other Mary Joneses in the nation.
And that Soc.Sec number is the key.
In a computer age, it is possible to determine within minutes, or even seconds, with what political party "virginiadear" aligns herself, at least nominally (I do tend to vote by candidate, rather than by party.)
Does this help at all?