Sometimes DU bewilderes me

[yellowdogintexas]

43. No. It means that you do not register as member of any party when you register to vote. Then

at primary time, you will be asked which primary you are voting in, Democratic or Republican. You tell the poll worker, then you go vote. On Election Day, we have different paper ballots, and different scanners. You sign the book, and that info is recorded so you can't go across the room and vote in the other one.

When either party is trying to identify their voters, we have to run the voter files and sort them by party. Democrats do it with the VAN; I don't know what the Republicans do. I could have 1000 good strong Democratic voters in my precinct and never know who they are unless they vote in primaries.

It cracks me up when Texans say "oh I'm a registered Republican" because it does not happen. You will not find a party on your voter registration card. We never have enough candidates to actually have a primary vote for Libertarian, Independent, or Green. Even if we did it would be a very small assortment, so you would screw yourself out of having any say in either of the major parties' choices.

The third parties will be on the General Election ballot, provided they paid filing fees or got enough signatures on their petitions.