Posted on 02/07/2020 3:36:56 PM PST by MAexile
When I first registered to vote I got some advice from my father which I recently passed onto my son. Register as an independent. That way you’ll have total freedom to vote in any primary. Such was the law in both my home and adopted state. Still is.
Now he did this as a way to vote for the least onerous democrat in the primary as a way to limit the damage. Kinda let’s you know how long ago this was. Nowadays they’re all onerous.
Still, when I moved north I proudly kept my unenrolled status when I registered. Since then I have voted in three New Hampshire primaries.
2008: Open seat, I grabbed a Republican ballot. 2012: Obama in office, grabbed a Republican ballot. 2016: open seat again, grabbed a Republican ballot again.
I now find myself in a new place. Finally, I can cause some mischief.
First off, I appreciate that nothing is certain however President Trump seems to be very popular up here, and up until a week ago the only place you could find Bill Weld was on the side of a milk carton. So I feel comfortable taking a Democrat ballot.
The question I pose now is what is the end goal and keeping that in mind who is the best candidate to vote for that achieves that goal?
If the goal is the re-election of President Trump then an argument can be made for Biden or Warren. Both probably have more days behind them than ahead, and I believe one of the reasons that Trump beat Clinton was his relentless campaigning. Basically he drove her into the ground. Both of them would get exhausted, start making mistakes, taking time off, etc. Biden especially, he’s already a gaff machine, imagine what would come out of his mouth after running around the country following Trump.
Or is the goal to re-elect the President AND fracture the Democratic Party by sending them to a brokered convention? If that’s the case Sanders is the logical choice. They do not want him to be the nominee. I don’t think it’s just a matter of them thinking he can’t win, in my opinion only those willfully ignorant of the facts (or clinically insane) thinks President Trump can be beaten. I think they’re afraid he’ll bring down the party in the process. Getting him close to the nomination and sending it to a second or third ballot may just split the Democrats into multiple pieces that could take a generation or more to put back together.
Freepers, I welcome your opinions. On Tuesday morning I will be inline at my polling place with a giant smile on my face, thinking of all the confusion and consternation I can help cause.
Who would vote for?
I agree.
Don’t forget, if the goal is to force the Democrats to a brokered convention the more delegates Sanders gets the better. No super delegate is going to vote for him, and I believe the rules have been changed so they can’t vote until the second round.
New Hampshire is bad when it comes to super delegates. In 2016 Clinton lost but ended up with more delegates, IIRC.
One year my parents pulled a Democrat ballot and forgot to change their declaration back to unenrolled. Messed them up for a couple of years.
Are you in NY State? If so, are you talking about the Independence Party?
Nope, the only thing on the ballot is who should the presidential nominee be. I think the statewide primary is in September.
Don’t think. Vote Trump. See, that was easy.
We don’t know what state you’re in.
Here at CREEP, we sabotaged Muskie, Humphrey, Wallace.
But we didn’t volunteer, donate or vote for McGovern.
No sir, I am in the great state of New Hampshire. LIVE FREE OR DIE!
Any of the parties can hold a primary, but since it can be expensive, only the largest parties do it. So de facto, you are right. It makes no sense here to register as unaffiliated.
It’s the Independence Party you might have enrolled in.
Cast your vote based on the 15% rule. The democrats changed their primary systems to proportional voting after the last election. So every candidate gets delegates based on their percentage. They put in a floor of 15%. To get delegates they must have at least 15% of the vote. My theory is that we want a contested convention with as many candidates as possible with delegates. If we vote for the candidate nearest to 15% in the state polls before the primary we can keep as many of them alive as long as possible. I say nearest to 15% because all polls have a margin of error. So a candidate polling 16.5% might only get 14.9% of the vote and fail to get delegates. By keeping as many of these losers alive as possible hopefully all the way to the convention we create disunity and distrust. Imagine if we could keep six candidates viable, Crazy Bernie, Mayor Pete, Liawatha, Bite Me, Klobuchar and mini-mike. The convention goes to a second or third vote. Deals get made, hopefully, several of them get screwed over. Disunity and an even bigger victory in November.
My district in Texas has no primary races of interest to me therefore I can indulge in this. By all means though if you have a chance to vote against the GOPe in the primary that is where you need to cast your ballot.
It is a great state.
I ask only because many people see “Independence” on the NY registration form and think it means independent. There is a way to remain unaffiliated, the last choice on the list.
To me it makes no sense, because you are free to ignore everything about a party but the ability to vote in its primaries, so why limit your options? But some are more ideological than political, and that is admirable too.
I’d vote Bernie.
Communism vs Capitalism.
Like to see it brought front and centered and finally debated.
Went to a communist county in the mid 80’s. There is no middle class there. Idiots in America need an education.
My Grandpa went through the Russian Revolution. The Bolshevik battle cry was “For The People”. (Same as Kamala Harris)
My Grandpa’s family were middle class farmers. Kulaks,
and the Bolsheviks took
all their
food stores and livestock.
The rich is the donor class and the left will never touch them. They didn’t go after them during the Russian Revolution. They won’t go after them today.
They will go after us. The Middle Class.
Pray for Trump. BIG TIME. He’s the defender of the middle class.
I thought I’d registered as an Independent. This was a very long time ago, so the list of parties available to register with may have changed since then. I just checked the most recent NY State voter registration form, and I don’t recall seeing all of those party affiliations on the form I filled out. I’m talking at least 20+ years ago.
There are now a bunch listed, I think in order of how many members they have in the state. And there’s a place to write in your own favorite party, no matter how small or obscure. The registration form does keep changing, in response to changes in the law.
I like your thinking.
Last I heard the support was really fungible, like 50% could change their vote. This could be a last minute decision.
But yeah, keep them all at the same level, spending money, running around. Sounds good.
Bootyjuice. There’s no way he can get much of the Mexican-American vote, African-American vote or senior vote. He’ll lose to President Trump regardless of any other trends or disasters.
In our RED county in Maryland, the primary is when our votes count the most. I think we have four candidates for County Executive on the Republican side - none on the Democrat side. Whoever wins the primary, will win the general.
I suppose that I’d prefer to live in your county.
But I have always had the same fear of powerful political ‘parties’ that many of the Founders did, and have never wanted to belong to one.
(It’s sort of the same way that I feel about religious sects.)
Indiana is like that. To vote in the primary you have to vote your registration.
I understand the appeal of playing it independent, but the other side can play that game too. And they’ve proven time and again that they do know how to play it.
So is it better to just make sure your side has all the people your side will support in the general, or is it more important to play games, that a lot of people don’t pay attention to, and let the other side have a say in dictating your choices?
I’ll be helping the DNC feel the Bern here in SC!
Not here, in New Jersey. Choices here are R, D or Unaffiliated. Only R and D may participate in primaries.
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