District of Columbia Voter Registration

If you're registered Democrat, you vote in the Democratic primary. If you're registered Republican, you vote in the Republican primary. If you're unaffiliated, you can pick either; you may need to formally affiliate at the polls.

An improvement over closed primaries, but still ties the system to party labels. Voters shouldn't have to join a private organization to participate in publicly funded elections.

Voters must register with a party, often weeks or months before the election, to participate. If you're registered as independent or unaffiliated, you cannot vote in either major party's primary.

Closed primaries lock millions of independent voters out of the elections that matter most. In many districts, the primary is the only competitive election.