1. This was a primary, not a general, election. All party and non-affiliated primaries* take place on the same day in the same polling stations. No one knows which candidates you vote for. After the supervisor checks you in, you vote on the paper ballot (which is machine readable) in the voting booth. No one sees it. However, your party affiliation is a matter of public record. Rhode Island does not have open primaries. I’m a registered Democrat and as such I vote in the democratic primary. My wife, on the other hand, always dis-affiliates after she votes in a primary, so that she can choose the primary she wants to vote in next time there is a primary election. If it was up to me, that wouldn’t be a thing. I say show some commitment if you want to vote in a party primary.
2. In the general election, all the ballots are the same. There is no republican vs democratic ballot.** I’m a registered Democrat but no one will know who I voted for. I can vote for any republicans I want and no one is will know.

* I didn’t go into detail about non-affiliated primary ballots because the article is long enough already.

** I didn’t bother to point that out in my article because, again, it is long enough as it is. I cut some other stuff out such as the fine-grained details about the incident. With those included it was an 8 minute read and they were boring anyway.