Early Voting
Jan 28th, 2008 by jeremy
Everyone should vote early for the February 5th primary. I went last Friday and it was different than any other voting experience I’ve had. No lines, no stress and I was finished in less than 5 minutes. There was one part that’s a little strange though, if you’re registered as an Independent, they only let you vote for the Democratic candidates. So can anyone tell me why? If the Republicans think it’s bad to let Independent vote, why would Democrats think it’s good? Are Independents in Utah more likely to vote for Democrats? It was a little confusing.
You can register as a Republican on the spot if you have a great desire to vote for the Republican candidates, but the desire wasn’t there for me.
In the past, you could never vote in a primary unless you declared a party affiliation to avoid (for example) the Republicans to vote for the Democratic candidate that would easiest for the Republicans to beat. I wonder if the Democrats aren’t as fussy because they know they don’t have a prayer in Utah, especially this year.
Actually, the republicans closed their primary only a few years ago(2002) after they felt their primaries were being hijacked by independents and democrats who didn’t have primary candidates to vote for. They thought that Non-party members were going in and voting for people that would not be strong candidates in the general elections. It was pushed through by the very conservative members of the party who are afraid to let it be an open primary. Drives me crazy and I have often considered going back to unaffiliated.
By the Way, I love early voting! I used it for the past three elections!