I’m voting for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential primary.

Please indulge me for a moment. I’m about as liberal as they come, vote in every election (even the tiny local ones), and almost always cast a straight-ticket Democratic ballot. I’m registered as an independent, however. Eons ago, during one gubernatorial election here in Massachusetts, I favored the moderate Republican candidate over his much more conservative Democratic rival. Since then I’ve preferred to remain officially neutral, voting on the issues rather than automatically with the party. But as my opinions and morals lean pretty far to the left, I almost always vote for the Donkeys.

Not this time.

We Bay Staters have what’s known as a semi-closed primary: people with a particular party affiliation can only vote in their party’s primary, but unaffiliated voters get to request either party’s ballot. Some states have even less restrictive policies: In states with open or semi-open primaries, any voter — Democrat, Republican, independent, or other — can request either ballot on primary day. A total of 25 states have some form of open primary. And in those primaries, some committed, lifelong Democrats and Republicans intentionally (if temporarily) switch sides to vote for whoever would prove the weakest opponent against their true party’s nominee in the general election. This tactic, known as “party raiding,” has the added benefit of eroding support for the weaker candidate’s more viable in-party competition.