Good Question: What about my party registration?

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — We’ve received another Good Question about voting.

Joia sent News10NBC’s Brennan Somers an email saying: I just moved back to NY and registered as "no party affiliation.” I heard from friends that I won’t be able to vote because I have to be registered as a Democrat/Republican. Then looked up online and it depends on the state if they’re an open/closed state. It’s all confusing and with the October deadline for registration, I’m hoping you can help answer my question. Can I vote in the presidential election in November if I’m registered as no party affiliation?

That answer is yes, Joia’s friends are wrong, at least when it comes to Election Day in November.

There’s some good info on this posted at USA.gov. The general election this fall is called general for a reason. You can vote for a candidate from any party whether that’s for president, congress or mayor.

Your party tie is usually only important for primaries, like what we had earlier this summer. Several states, including NY, have "closed" primaries, where you can only vote for your party’s candidates.

The idea is to cut back on "cross-over" voting by members of other groups.

That may be where the confusion lies as our primary was later this year and those rules are what people remember.

The deadline to register to vote by the way is coming up on Oct. 9.

If you have a question you’d like answered, send an email to GoodQuestion@whec.com.