Changes are coming for voters
Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the state’s new early primary
Most of the Golden State’s 20 million registered voters are expected to vote this month by mail, making California’s Election Day more like an election month.
Here’s what you need to know:
When is the election, and when do I need to register?
California and a dozen other states hold their primaries on Super Tuesday, March 3. But millions of voters will cast their ballots before then, either by mail or through inperson early voting, which has started at county elections offices around the state.
The deadline to register to vote in California is Tuesday, although voters who miss that can still register and vote conditionally at any polling place in their home county during early voting or on election day — which means their ballot will only be processed after their registration information is verified.
State officials rushed to make the process even easier: Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill that allows voters to change their party or update their address anytime until polls close on Election Day and not have to vote with a conditional ballot.
What’s on the ballot?
Voters will choose legislative and congressional candidates in the state’s top-two primary, setting up showdowns in November for those races between the top-two finishers, regardless of their parties. And there are several local ballot measures across the Bay Area. But the Democratic presidential primary will be by far the biggest spectacle on the ballot.
Who gets to vote in the Democratic presidential primary?
You don’t have to be a registered Democrat. No party preference voters — the fastestgrowing segment of the electorate — can participate too. If you vote in person, just ask for a Democratic presidential ballot at your polling place.
Independents who vote by mail, however, were supposed to request a Democratic ballot in advance — if you forgot to do that, you can still ask for a ballot from your county by email or phone. You can also go to your polling place on Election Day, surrender your mail-in ballot and get a new Democratic presidential ballot there.
The GOP allows only registered Republicans to participate in their primary — but independents probably won’t be missing much, as none of President Donald Trump’s little-known primary challengers have gotten much traction.
What else will be new this time?
Several of the state’s counties, including Santa Clara, San Mateo, Napa, Los Angeles and Orange, are using a new system that will mail a ballot to every voter, expand in-person early voting, and let voters cast their ballot at any vote center in the county. San Mateo piloted the new procedures — called the Voter Choice Act — during the 2018 midterms.
Voters in those counties can mail in the ballot they received or go to any vote center — in Santa Clara County, for example, there will be 22 locations open starting 10 days before the election and 88 locations opening the weekend before election day. Other Bay Area counties will continue to only send mail-in ballots to voters who request them.
Why are we voting so early this year?
The state Legislature and then Gov. Jerry Brown moved up the primary from June to March in 2017. The point was to win California more influence after several presidential primary elections in which the largest state was little more than an afterthought.
But the four early states have still eclipsed California in their influence on the race so far — even though we have more than double all their delegates combined.