So it is a big election year. Over the last few months, there have been lots of those little plastic signs promoting Jane Doe for state legislature or John Doe for county commissioner. This year, I noticed something I had not noticed before. Now, I don't know whether this means that I just noticed or it just started, but either way:

Nearly every Republican candidate (over 90%) has no party affiliation listed, while nearly every Democratic candidate (also over 90%) listed their party affiliation after their name.

So, I wondered about the difference. Do Republicans leave them off because they're counting on the relative ignorance of most voters (how many people really know a lot about all the candidates in the local and state elections) to work through sheer name recognition? Do the Democrats list their party to make sure that Democrats can vote for Democrats without having to know any more about them? What about third parties and independents? There are always some running, but I haven't seen any signs for them at all.

What do you think?