How to determine someone's voter affilitation?

[Captain Neon]

Lizzie, George Washington's 1796 Farewell Address outlines his opposition to political parties. IMHO, the Founding Fathers of these united States of America would be appalled at the idea of party politics, primaries, and special privileges awarded to established political parties. It has been my observation that ballot access provisions have been a tool used by the governing elite to servely curtail opposing ideas in the marketplace of ideas. When there are two candidates arguing about which country to invade next, it is truly radical to have a candidate that suggests that it may be wrong to invade in the first place. When the idea of no invasion is not presented, it is now a meaningless, but heated nonetheless, discussion of who to invade next.

 

[MisterCairo]

Hi

I don't keep up much the Canadian politics, but how are the party's candidates picked in Canada? The US only does parties on voter ID because the various Party's primary system using the same polling places etc, as the governmental elections.

Later

To understand our system (same essentially in Britain, Australia, etc.) you have to recognize that we don't vote directly for the Prime Minister(or provincial premier), that is, we don't vote directly for any party's leader (the exceptions being of course for the voters in the riding the leader happens to be a candidate in, and they are not voting for the leader as "prime minister" per se, he or she is first and foremost a candidate for Member of Parliament - MP). We vote locally to choose our member of parliament, and by tradition the leader of the party winning the most seats is appointed Prime Minister of Canada (or premier of a province) by the Crown.

In each riding, parties select their candidate to run for MP (MPP, MLA, etc.) using internal rules, which are variations on this theme: the local riding association for the party will conduct a nomination process in which party members may put themselves forward for candidacy. They campaign locally, trying to gain support of riding members, and signing up more members who will presumably support them. Local riding party members (you can sign up to join a party, pay your ten bucks and get a card, and you are automatically a member of your local riding association) are eligible to attend the nomination meeting and cast a ballot to choose the riding's candidate.

So, for any one riding, you may have a few hundred or several thousand people selecting a candidate for a party. Again, party membership is purely private.

The party itself as a national (or provincial) organization will choose a leader for electoral purposes (the party will have a position-based president, treasurer, etc.). Anyone may theoretically run as a candidate, provided only that they are a member of that party. Most often, the selected leader is a sitting MP, however, sometimes they come in from other political office or simply off the street (Conservative PM Brian Mulroney in the 1980s for example had never sat in Parliament when he ran for and was chosen leader of the Tories). Once chosen by the party, the leader is expected to become Prime Minister.

So federally, we currently have a Conservative party government, with Stephen Harper as Prime Minister. He was chosen leader of the Tories by party membership (for the Tories it is one member one vote, other parties have a kind of primary system where local ridings select representatives to represent the riding at a national convention). Harper himself represents a riding in Calgary Alberta, so the only people eligible to vote directly for him were in that riding, and he was simply one candidate for MP among several.

But as the leader of the party commanding the House of Commons, he was by parliamentary tradition appointed Prime Minister to Her Majesty by the Governor General.

In reality, while many people say "vote for the local candidate, not the party", most Canadians in the polling booth see a list of names, but look to the party affilliation (if any) beside it and vote accordingly, knowing that the leader of the party with the most seats (ridings) won will be PM.



Do you regret asking now?!

 

[Atticus Finch]

Dang. And I thought understanding the subtle nuances of southern politics was a challenge.

AF

 

[MisterCairo]

Atticus, you don't know the half of it!

 

[sheeplady]

Sure sounds like he would have been a Dem, but I guarantee you you can't find out who he voted for. There is no way to associate a given voter with the vote he or she cast. That's why there's a curtain in front of the booth, and why you don't sign your ballot. The secret ballot is one of the most fundamental bedrocks of democracy.

Technically, there are ways to tell right at the polls, depending upon how voting is done in whatever state you live in. On the old machines in NY, they recorded the voter (customer served) number on the machine on the voter registration book. In the new system (scantron), the number on your form is recorded in the voter registration book. If you need a new form (stupid machine ripped mine last election), they cross out your previous form number and record a new one next to your signature. Or at least that's the way they've done it in every election I've ever voted in.

Of course, all the forms are destroyed and it would take a poll worker a tedious amount of time to match them all up (besides being against the law and numerous checks in place to make sure it doesn't happen). And it's def. not possible once those ballots or rolls are destroyed.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Sounds pretty close to how my Grandfather would have voted. He is very conservative, but typically voted Democrat, being that he's been a Union man since practically as long as he's been working. He was born in 1930.

Truman in '48, Ike in '52 and '56, Kennedy in '60, Johnson in '64, and Nixon in '68. That's a pretty typical voting pattern for someone of the demographic type you describe.