MARCH 7, 2000 BLANKET PRIMARY
SO, WHAT'S A BLANKET PRIMARY?
The March 2000
Presidential Primary
Election will be California's
second "blanket" primary
and first "presidential"
blanket primary.
In a "blanket" primary, all
candidates from all parties
appear on the same ballot.
Before the blanket primary
system was adopted by
voters in March 1996, in
primary elections you could
only vote for candidates from
the political party in which you
were registered. This is
known as a "closed" primary.
Republicans could only vote
for Republicans, Democrats
for Democrats, etc. Only
candidates from your
political party were listed on
your ballot for partisan
contests and nonpartisan
voters could not vote.
MARCH BALLOT
On March 7, 2000
your ballot will
include all candidates from
all parties. You can vote for
any candidate from any
political party, regardless of
your political party, but you
can only vote for one
candidate in most contests.
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Your ballot will look exactly
like the ballot received by
other voters who are
registered with different
political parties. However,
ballots will be identified
across the top as ballots for
Democratic voters,
Republican voters, American
Independent voters,
Nonpartisan voters, etc.
OFFICES AFFECTED
The March
blanket primary applies to
candidates for partisan
offices such as U.S.
Senate, Congress, State
Senate and Assembly.
The only exceptions are
the political parties' County
Central Committee or
County Council offices.
The law still requires that
only voters registered in a
particular political party
can vote in that party's
Central Committee or
County Council election.
For the offices listed above,
the top vote-getter wins the
party nomination or election.
This is NOT, however, the
case for electing
Presidential nominees.
"The person with the most
votes wins," is not the
formula for electing
Presidential nominees.
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES & THE BLANKET PRIMARY
The process of electing a presidential nominee from each political party to appear on the November 2000 ballot is complicated.
Presidential nominees are
NOT selected by a popular
vote; rather, each party
selects delegates from
throughout the state.
The delegates then go to a
convention at which the
presidential nominee is
chosen for that political
party to appear on the
November run-off ballot.
Our Blanket Primary does not mix well with the national Democratic and Republican party rules. The party rules insist that only voters who are registered with their political party can have a voice in the selection of delegates to the national presidential nominating conventions held after the March presidential primary.
MAKING YOUR VOTE COUNT FOR PRESIDENT
For the office of U.S. President ONLY, the State Legislature passed and the Governor enacted a new law that requires election officials to count the ballots in two different ways:
1) the popular vote (how all the voters in the county voted for the various presidential candidates); and
2) separately how
Democrats voted for all
candidates; how
Republicans voted for all
candidates; how
Nonpartisan voters voted
for all candidates; etc.
In order for election
officials to accommodate
this new "vote once, count
twice" voting method for
presidential candidates,
ballots will have to be
identified and distributed
according to political party
affiliation.
COUNTING VOTES AT THE CONVENTIONS?
According to the political
party rules, the parties will
ONLY use those votes
cast by voters who are
affiliated with their
particular political party for
purposes of apportioning
delegates to select a
presidential nominee for
the November 2000 ballot.
In other words, Democratic
convention party delegates
will only count election
results showing how
Democrats voted for
Democratic candidates;
and Republican
convention party delegates
will only count election
results showing how
Republicans voted for
Republican candidates,
etc....
X-OVER VOTES
Election results
reporting how
Democrats voted for
Republican presidential
candidates, or how Green
Party voters voted for
Democratic candidates will
not be counted when party
delegates are choosing
their party's presidential
nominee.
NONPARTISAN VOTERS BEWARE....
For the office of U.S.
President ONLY, the
political party rules do not
allow the votes of
nonpartisan voters to be
counted when selecting
that party's presidential
nominee for the November
2000 run-off election.
SOMETHING TO
CONSIDER WHEN
REGISTERING TO
VOTE. The deadline for
registering to vote and
changing your party
registration for the March
7, 2000 Primary is
FEBRUARY 7, 2000.
YOU CAN GET MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE MARCH BLANKET PRIMARY: