California Bill to Let Voters Change Their Party Immediately Before a Primary Passes

On September 13, the California legislature passed AB 681. It lets voters change their party affiliation as late as primary day, without filling out a new voter registration form. It lets voters change their party by telephone, fax, or e-mail, as well as in person at the polls.

It also provides that all voters will be sent a piece of postal mail several months before a primary, telling them what their party affiliation is. In the case of independent voters, two such notices will be sent.

Assuming Governor Newsom signs AB 681, this bill will resolve the problems that were present in the last presidential primary, when some voters did not know they were registered in the American Independent Party, and were disappointed not to be able to request the ballot of some other party.


Comments

California Bill to Let Voters Change Their Party Immediately Before a Primary Passes — 6 Comments

  1. The notice (which may be sent out prior to the deadline for the mandated2 name change) will (1) inform them of their current affiliation; (2) inform them of the type of presidential ballot they will be able to vote; (3) if they are NPP, inform them of the party ballots they may select; and (4) tell them how they can change their affiliation.

    Change of affiliation can be online, phone, e-mail, mail, and may be done on election day.

    It would be even simpler if California would eliminate partisan registration, and use a system like Washington where affiliation is anonymous, or Texas where affiliation occurs on election day and is not persistent.

  2. Including this one, election officials often neglect to think about how easy or difficult it would be for a company to audit this process. Other instances include early voting. I want systems that are easy for the American people to see the transparency of a process and be assured that the results are what they should have been. Maybe elected officials have thought about this and purposely create processes that are very difficult to audit.

  3. Given that Trump is not likely to be threatened by his Republican challengers, this bill gives the Republicans the opportunity to vote in the Democratic primary. In a crowded field, this could have interesting consequences. The Democrats might want to change to ranked choice voting

  4. @WZ,

    Remember that there are congressional and legislative and nonpartisan offices on the ballot, where party affiliation doesn’t matter. Democrats are using the presidential race like a loss leader, where grocery stores sell milk or similar products at a loss in order to draw shoppers into the store to buy other products.

    Even if independent voters vote for Williamson or Yang, they will decide that they are Democrats and vote for Democrats down ballot. They might even believe that it is illegal to vote for a non-Democrat.

    In Oregon, the Green Party has lost substantial registration before presidential primaries, particularly in 2008 and 2016. This will likely happen in California as well, and also the Peace&Freedom party. It might even push them below the qualification level.

    This is also the rationale behind the tax-disclosure bill. If Trump is off the ballot, fewer Republicans will vote. It is also why they liberalized the candidate recognition bill. Bill Weld told them the original bill would make it hard for him to qualify.

  5. WZ+JR

    Having the Prez primary registration voters deadline after the Prez primary candidates deadline is typical LUNACY in this New Age of nonstop LUNATICS RIGGING/controlling the *system*.

    —-
    NOOOO primaries

    PR and AppV and TOTSOP

  6. Mimi Soltysik should sue to force the SOS to specify his party preference under new Elections Code 12100(a)(1) as Socialist Party USA.

    The same treatment should be for registered Independent, Coffee, etc.

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