The Iowa caucuses got off to a raging start Thursday and presidential primary season is in full swing. Soon you should be receiving your Sample Ballot & Official Voter Information Pamphlet in the mail if you haven’t gotten it already (read our previous post about how they are compiled and sent).
For those registered with a political party, the way it works is pretty clear. In Iowa, they showed up to caucuses in their precinct for their party. In California, you’ll get a ballot for your party either at the polls or in the mail. But for those voters who chose not to affiliate with any political party, called Decline to State but also known as nonpartisan or independent, it’s a little more complicated.
So, Decline-to-Staters, read up.
Under California law, qualified political parties may choose to allow Decline-to-State voters to vote their primary ballot each time a primary election rolls around. For the Feb. 5 Presidential Primary, just the American Independent and Democratic parties opted to allow independents to vote their ballot. The Green, Libertarian, Peace and Freedom and Republican parties did not.
Decline-to-State voters have an important choice to make. And we’re asking those already signed up to Vote by Mail to aim to make their choice by the end of the day on Monday to make life a little easier on all of us.
We’ve heard from 459 Decline-to-Staters who’ve chosen a Democratic ballot and 21 who’ve chosen an American Independent.
Those who haven’t notified us by the end of the day Monday of their Vote by Mail ballot choice will automatically be mailed a nonpartisan ballot as part of the mass mailing of official ballots that begins the same day. Nonpartisan ballots, however, don’t contain primary candidates. Those ballots are awfully short, with just the state propositions. Not nearly as fun.
Under the law, nonpartisans actually have until the end of the day on Jan. 29 to make their Vote by Mail ballot choice known. But if they’ve already received a nonpartisan ballot, they’ll have to go through the extra step of spoiling their nonpartisan ballot first (don’t worry, we provide instructions). Regardless, it means more time expended and more paper wasted.
So don’t wait to take care of it.
