Voter registration question

[Hippo_Tron]

When I registered to vote in TN there was no box for party affiliation. Is it possible to declare your party affiliation in Tennessee or not?

[SharonAnn]

1. No. You can vote in any primary by declaring which one you want to vote in.

And you can vote in the other party's primary the next time, if you want to.

When you vote in a primary here, you can only vote in one party's primary. some people want to do a cafeteria type primary but that's not allowed. One party or the other.

Since some area of the state are so heavily Democrat or Republican, people will cross over to vote in the primary if there are really important local or state elections that they want to have a say in. Sometimes offices go uncontested because there's not a viable opposition party in that county.

This is one of the reason why it's been so hard to build Voter Lists by party in this state. The only record you can go by is what primaries a person voted in. Some cross back and forth. Others don't vote in primaries at all.

Hope that answers your questions.

[Hippo_Tron]

2. Yes, that was incredibly helpful

Thank-you so much

One more thing. Are the delegates decided by precinct or are they based on the total percentage you get in the state?

[SharonAnn]

3. Delegates are by Congressional District plus the state Super-Delegates.

The local (Congressional District) delegates start out the selection process by being elected in their local county Democratic Candidate Caucus (for those of use who are in multi-county congressional districts). Then those people elected at the local caucus go to the Congressional District election and some get elected as the actual Delegates to the convention.

In addition, there are some Super-Delegates assigned to the state.

Last time (2004) we got 3 of 6 delegate seats by forming a coalition of the smaller counties against the major population center. That county was used to getting all the seats so they weren't paying attention to their other competition for the seats. It was a blast! Of course, we'll probably not be able to do that again. They'll be wiser this time. Nonetheless, it was really an energizing time.

The Tennessee Democratic Delegate selection process will begin soon. Contact your local party to find out the date, location, time, and other arrangements in your county's caucus. Or go to www.tndp.org to get the information for your county.

Participate in it! It's a lot of fun and you get to meet a lot of really neat people.

Good luck!

[SharonAnn]

4. Oops, you may mean General Election Electoral Votes. It's winner take all.

I think Tennessee has 11 Electoral Votes. Whoever wins Tennessee in the General Election in November will win the 11 Electoral Votes.

My previous answer related to Delegates to the Democratic Convention in Denver this summer.

The Republicans have a different system for selecting their Delegates to the Republican Convention in Minneapolis this summer. They have all 120(?) of their Delegate candidates on the statewide ballot, I'm told. So Republican voters in the Presidential Primary on Feb. 5th will get to vote for 12 of the 120(?). I may not have this completely correct, but it's pretty close.

It'll be easier for Democrats in the Polling Booth on Feb. 5th. We'll vote for our presidential candidate out of those on the ballot. The Republicans will do that, plus vote for the local Property Assessor candidates, plus 12 of the Delegates to the Republican Convention.