Registering your political party with the state is weird.
PA is one of 11 states with fully closed primaries. If you aren’t registered as a Democrat or Republican in those states, then you can’t vote in your party’s primary.
In other states with open and semi-closed primaries, I agree with you. But in those 11 closed states (plus 3 more for republicans) it’s even weirder to register with a party and then be one of the majority of voters who don’t bother voting in the primary - especially when the primary is the only opportunity you have to choose someone who more closely aligns with your ideology. It’s weirder still to not vote in the primary and then complain about your party’s nominee.
Edit Tl;dr: PA voters should register with a party and participate in the primary every time. It’d be weird not to.
I know. I said what I said.
Democrats continue to see defections to Republicans, independents or other parties since the start of 2024, as 39,278 have signed on as members of the GOP, while 22,786 indicated another preference. For comparison, the GOP lost 14,652 to Democratic registration and an additional 21,991 to others.
I wonder how many of those were a result of efforts to game primaries?
