(I hereby apologize to the BMG community for making total hash of the first iteration of this post. It’s now accurate.)
If you’re not yet registered to vote, August 30 is the deadline to register in order to vote in the primary on September 19. If you’re registered as a Republican, you can’t vote in the Democratic primary, and vice versa. If you’re unenrolled you can vote in either.
You don’t need to be enrolled in a party to vote, but why not? First of all, if you’re reading this site, be a Democrat already. It’s like one big family, with hot meals and liquor and crying and diapers and TV and “Honey, I’m home” and the whole bit. Come and get your love.
Second, you’re not allowed to have an opinion on The Geek vs. Sipowitz vs. Mr. Hope (and a Hug) unless you can actually cast a vote on Tuesday 9/19. Sorry. Zip! ZIPPIT! (Peter, Gary: I’m sorry. Will you excuse us? We need to have a family chat.) And by the way, you can’t play with Darth Vader or The Genius or Timmy or Andie or Debbie, either. Tough luck.
So come on, kids — line up, sign up, and enlist today!
Have the laws changed? I’m registered as unenrolled, but have always been able to “temporarily switch” my registration to either party to vote in primaries.
I believe this state allows unenrolled voters to vote in the primary as well (obviously they have to choose one party’s primary). As a Democrat, I would very much welcome more members to the flock, but if you feel you must remain unenrolled, you can still vote in the primary in this state.
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I say in this state because it’s not the norm, and having grown up in New York, I still think it’s very peculiar, but that’s a whole different subject. đŸ™‚
to vote in the Democratic Primary. Massachusetts has an open primary unless you are enrolled in an opposition party. In other words, “unenrolled” voters have the option to take any party ballot, either Republican or Democratic. Democrats and Republican MUST vote in their respective primaries.
Fixed it.
Thanks for the correction.
I think he’s more like Leo McGarry. (No, it’s not because Leo’s dead.)
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sabutai — does this qualify as saying something nice about candidates we’re not supporting??
No, definitely not Sipowicz: The dad on That 70’s Show, Kurtwood Smith.
…Gary and I will hide out here behind the tree in the schoolyard, with the ciggies and the magazine we found and the free beers until yer done talkin’, and THEN we’ll tell ’em about the GOP!
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And Charley and I are united on this one point – as hacks in our respective parties, we are soooooo tired of having unenrolleds flood into our primaries and choose our candidates for us.
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Pick a side, why dontcha? (Mine is BETTER!)
I’d rather see people with Republican values leave the Dems (or the ranks of Unenrolled) and register Republican. For one, a loyal opposition (sorry, I think that’s all you’ll ever be for a long time, if not forever!) is very important – it helps to keep a house clean in my opinion (some of the time). Second, I’m so TIRED of having people in the party who pretty much hate the platform of the party they ran for office under, but joined anyway because it’s the only game in town. It used to MEAN something to be a Democrat!
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Gah!
This may be a stupid question, but is the August 30th deadline the same if say I wanted to switch my party affiliation from republican to democrat?
Every change that you might want to make in order to vote in the primary must be done by Wednesday night.
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This includes:
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1. Registering to vote
2. Changing party status
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Remember, if you’re a Democrat or a Republican, you can only vote in that party’s primary. If you’re not enrolled in a party (Unenrolled), you can vote in either party’s primary and you will remain unenrolled after you vote.
The sad fact is I cant vote in the primary but I can in the general (my 18th falls right in between both dates) so all the Patrick supporters MUST make sure their registered to vote because I need YOU to help put my main man on the ballot line so I CAN VOTE for him. If not this man might go green….
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Yeah I just put that there to scare you, but it could happen!