California NPP voters - primary info!

[Retrograde]

Last edited Sun Nov 24, 2019, 04:33 PM - Edit history (1)

If you're registered in California as a No Party Preference voter (also called Independent, not to be confused with the American Independent Party) you will NOT be automatically eligible to vote in the 2020 presidential primary.

You may request a Democratic ballot for this election. State election law states that for presidential primaries, only voters registered in that party can vote in the primary election, UNLESS the party opts to allow No Party Preference voters to request a partisan ballot. For 2020, the Democratic party (along with the American Independent and Libertarian parties) are allowing non-aligned voters to participate (notice that the Republicans aren't). BUT, you will not be given a Democratic Party ballot unless you specifically request one.

If you're voting in person on primary day this is no big deal: just ask the nice election worker for the ballot you want. For vote-by-mail people, though, you'll need to do some advance planning to make sure you're sent the right ballot. Santa Clara County is on top of things: I got a mailing yesterday asking which one I wanted, complete with postage-paid reply card. Not all counties may be this progressive, though, so check your own.

I bring this up because this system caused a number of problems with NPP voters in the 2016 primary, especially those who discovered there was no Bernie (or no Hillary for that matter) on their mail-in ballots.

BTW, even if you do receive a NPP ballot in the mail, you can take that ballot to your polling place on election day and exchange it for a Democratic ballot.