Presidential primary: Making me pick a party is wrong

I was reading about the upcoming Washington state presidential primary and was surprised to see that I am required to designate a political party in order for my vote to be counted.

This seems to be a way to disenfranchise me, as I do not consider myself a member of either party. I believe in voting for the individual, not the party.

Also, as the parties are using public resources to obtain voter information, if this isn’t presently illegal it should be labeled as such.

The present method raises the question of whether I should participate at all.

This story was originally published February 25, 2020 at 12:31 PM with the headline "Presidential primary: Making me pick a party is wrong."