SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Before you know it, the California primary election will be here. In case you don't know when that is, it's March 3, 2020. For No Party Preference voters, that's hugely important.
Why? Well, last week, postcards were sent out to people asking them to choose a political party even after they've already registered to vote.
According to the Secretary of State's office, these postcards are being sent to people who are registered to vote, but they are not registered to a specific party.
Instead of choosing Democrat, Republican or a third party, voters chose "No Party Preference, which is the second largest voting bloc in California with 5,435,431 registered voters.
Yes, that means more than 5.4 million people were sent those postcards. If you got the card, it does not mean you're not registered to vote — you are. You do need to choose a party, though, since you can only vote for one party's presidential candidates in the California primary.
This is because of the state's top two primary system, which was actually something Californians voted for in 2010. The system pits all statewide candidates against each other in the primary, and the top two finishers in the race move to the general election no matter the political affiliation.
So for 2020, voters can choose to vote for a Democrat, American Independent or Libertarian on this card, but If you want to vote Republican or Green, Peace and Freedom for the primary, you must be registered to those parties. Same goes for other parties.
If you don't choose a party, you can still vote in statewide elections, but you won't be able to vote for a presidential candidate on your ballot.
It doesn't mean you can't vote for president in the general election in November, just the March primary.
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