"What's your party?"

Polling place judges didn’t understand what primary elections were.

 When voters entered the polling places on primary election day, the judges asked (often in a nasty manner), “What’s your party?”

That was one of the reasons many people didn’t vote in primaries. They didn’t think they should have to “declare” their party.

Well, a primary is merely an election to decide who the party nominees will be in the general election. In Illinois, you can vote in whichever primary you want – Democratic, Republican, or sometimes Green – without regard to how you have voted in previous primary elections. You aren’t declaring anything.

It seems, a lot of polling place judges still don’t get it.

When I voted in the recent primary election, the polling place judge asked my name and address, then lowered her voice and softly asked “what party do you want?” as if it was personal information that she was asking only because she had to.