Letter to the editor: Rules violate voter privacy

OPINION:

I have decided not to vote anymore. I have voted my whole adult life, so why am I now stopping?

Well, when we vote, we aren’t permitted to wear candidate- or party-favoring pins, hats, shirts, etc., into the voting areas. Supposedly it’s to protect us and our right to vote. We are also asked to vote alone, not right next to others also casting their votes.

But this supposed deference to voter privacy is all charade. How? For starters, in many states the two major political parties force us to affiliate with them before we can vote in their primaries. This mandatory requirement violates a right to privacy that should be absolute. That is, a right to vote privately so that that neither party knows how we are voting.

Why should any citizen have to preemptively tell the political parties how we will vote before we cast our vote? There is no protected voter privacy in this mandate. This is the Democratic and Republican parties negate the power of the voters. And it steals the validity of our collective voices.

American voters should be asked only to provide proof of whether they are eligible to vote nothing more. Until that happens, I refuse to vote. I will not participate in this privacy-violation game.

A.J. CASTILLA