> If you are a registered Republican can you vote Democrat if you
> decide it's a good idea some election?

You can vote for *any* candidate in the *general* election, but not the
primary in most places.

Primary = nominating the candidate that will *represent your party* in the
general election.

General = voting for who you want to hold the office.

Most states won't allow you to cross party lines during the primary
elections.  When you go in, they only give you the ballot for the party you
are registerd in, and you vote to nominate the candidates you'd like to see on
the general ballot.

They cannot stop you from voting for whoever you want on the *general*
ballot... everyone in your district gets the same ballot, and all candiates
are listed -- Republican, Democrat, and otherwise.

In both cases, you can always write someone in but their chances of winning
go down the larger the race is... local elections can be won, state and
national not nearly as likely.

> I suppose if ballots are secret they'd never know, just be annoyed
> if they don't get as many votes as they expected..

Correct.  In the general they don't/shouldn't know.  For the primary, they
don't know who you choose but they do know which ballot -- Republican or
Democrat -- they gave you, and you are restricted to using it.

Mike

 * SLMR 2.1a * IBM = Institute of Black Magic
--- SBBSecho 3.28-Linux
 * Origin: capitolcityonline.net * Telnet/SSH:2022/HTTP (618:250/1)