California AB 681 passed the Senate Elections Committee on July 2, after having been amended. Originally it provided that election officials must send three notices in advance of a primary, telling them how they are registered, and explaining which parties let independent voters vote in their presidential primary. The bill now has the same provision, but it also lets voters change partisan affilation at the polls on primary election day.
Ballots to be marked by poll election official as to party ???
Can they change again on Election Day?
Richard:
If this bill was to become law in its current form, wouldn’t it neutralize the RATIONAL for prohibiting the use of Independent in a parties name in California? After all, should someone “__accidentally__” register in the American Independent Party they would be free to change to being registered Unaffiliated on the primary election day.
Richard Deemer, right you are. I remain your admirer, impressed by your insight and intellect. In one of our two-minute opposition testimonies is this terse proposal:
Just throw all the candidates of all party registrations (omitting independent candidates who would run in the General Election as now) into a single ballot, grouped by candidate party affiliation. The voter picks their favorite and their job is done. That vote is deemed made in the political primary of the party with which the candidate is affiliated.
I might add to this straightforward suggestion, that if a single write-in was permitted, there are 2 cases: 1. The name written in is affiliated with a ballot-qualified party, in which case the vote is counted for the write-in in the party of their affiliation. 2. If the write-in was unaffiliated with a ballot-qualified party, then the vote is deemed a signature to a petition to put the write-in on the General Election ballot.
Apologies, that’s Charles Deemer.