California Presidential Election Starts Feb. 3rd–How to Vote in Dem Primary if Not Registered Democrat

Do you have a favorite in the presidential primary?  Are you thinking of traveling to Iowa or New Hampshire because their primaries are so influential? If you are registered no party preference in California, do you know how to vote in the Democratic primary?   

California voters are so used to being irrelevant in presidential elections and pay so little attention to what is going on until the last couple months of the general election that we may not have noticed that 2020 is different.  Here’s a chart and some key points to help you through it:

This chart walks you through it.  A couple of points to flesh out:

• All other races in the state, for state-wide offices on down, are subject to Open Primary law where you can vote for your top pick regardless of party, but this does not apply to the presidential primary.

• If you are registered No Party Preference (i.e. not registered in particular party) it will be harder to vote in the Democratic primary than ever before.  You will receive a little card in the U.S. snail mail at your registration address (it is beyond the scope of this blog to explain what US mail is.  Suffice it to say that it exists and you do receive it somewhere).  If you want to vote in the Democratic presidential primary, you need to intercept that card and send it back in to request a Democratic primary ballot.

• If you are registered in the “American Independent” Party or Republican Party or Green Party or any party other than Democratic Party you cannot vote in the Democratic primary.

• If you want to vote in the Republican primary, you must be registered as a Republican.  The Republican party in California does not allow non Republicans to pick the presidential nominee.

• If you want to be sure of voting in the Democratic presidential primary the safest thing to do is re-register as a Democrat at your current address

• Last day to register to vote in California is February 18th.

• Link to CA Secretary of State website for more info on upcoming elections