The idea behind party registration is that it prevents people from trying to spoil another party’s primary.
If you’re allowed to vote in both, you could vote for the candidate you think is best for your party, and the candidate you think is worst for the other party.
Requiring party registration allows the primary election for each to be gatekept.
You’re not obligated to vote for the party that you’re registered to on election day, and voting across the aisle doesn’t really count as “lying”, though there are some people who do register for the party they oppose for weird reasons.
My state (WA) used to require party registration, but now they just use a combined primary ballot, and if you vote on both sides of it they shred it. They eliminated party registration because formerly registered independents couldn’t vote in either primary, and that generally wasn’t great since independents still have to operate inside of a largely obligate two party system.
The idea behind party registration is that it prevents people from trying to spoil another party’s primary.
If you’re allowed to vote in both, you could vote for the candidate you think is best for your party, and the candidate you think is worst for the other party.
Requiring party registration allows the primary election for each to be gatekept.
You’re not obligated to vote for the party that you’re registered to on election day, and voting across the aisle doesn’t really count as “lying”, though there are some people who do register for the party they oppose for weird reasons.
My state (WA) used to require party registration, but now they just use a combined primary ballot, and if you vote on both sides of it they shred it. They eliminated party registration because formerly registered independents couldn’t vote in either primary, and that generally wasn’t great since independents still have to operate inside of a largely obligate two party system.