Cyclists are liberals?! (Retry)

[VeloVT]

I don't vote in the primary because I refuse to choose a side and label myself one party or the other.

But... but... This argument doesn't really make sense, if you do ultimately care who you vote for in the general election... if you don't vote in the primary, then you may potentially have to live with the non-preferred candidate winning the nomination. Do you really want to be choosing between, say, Dennis Kucinich and Mitt Romney?

Now, of course, your ONE vote probably won't affect the primary, but your ONE vote won't turn the general election either -- so if you believe you should vote in one, then you should vote in both.

I also don't think they mark down which ballot you take in the primary -- they just cross your name off as having voted. You just have to be able to stomach saying it outloud once (though crossover voting in primaries is not unheard of either, so just becaue someone TAKES a Republican ballot doesn't necessarily mean he or she is a Republican...).

Interestingly, I voted last Tuesday in the state primary, and I wasn't asked which ballot I wanted -- I was handed a stack of four ballots: one with a city ballot measure that wasn't partisan, and three primary ballots (one democratic, one republican, and one progressive). You were supposed to fill out the top ballot and only one primary ballot -- there were two boxes at the poll exit, one optical scanner for the ballots you filled out, and one box for the ballots you didn't fill out. The primary ballots were marked with the message "complete one ballot only. if you complete more than one ballot, your vote will be invalid." I did wonder if they actually have a mechanism to check this.