The Independent View: CA 2016 Presidential Primary Eligible Voters

Voting in the June 7, 2016, Presidential Primary Election

Voters who registered to vote without stating a Political Party preference are known as No Party Preference (NPP) voters. NPP voters were formerly known as "decline-to-state" or “DTS” voters.

For Presidential elections: NPP voters, unless they choose otherwise, will receive a “Non-Partisan” ballot that does not include Presidential candidates. A nonpartisan ballot contains only the names of candidates for voter-nominated offices and local nonpartisan offices and measures.

An NPP voter will receive a non-partisan ballot, which will have no Presidential candidates listed.

However, upon request, an NPP voter can instead vote the Presidential ballot of the following parties:

American Independent Party
Democratic Party
Libertarian Party

Why? Each Political party has the option of allowing NPP voters to vote in their Presidential Primary election. 135 days before the election, Political Parties must notify the Secretary of State's office whether or not they will allow NPP voters to vote in their Presidential Primary election. The above three parties notified the Secretary of State that they will allow NPP voters to request their Party’s Presidential ballot for the June 7, 2016, Presidential Primary Election.

How to request a party ballot? The NPP voter may ask their County elections office or poll worker, at their polling place, for a ballot for one of the above three parties. An NPP voter may not request more than one Party's ballot.

A vote-by-mail voter who is also an NPP voter may contact their County Elections office or complete and mail a vote-by-mail ballot application to their County Elections office. The vote-by-mail ballot application must arrive by May 31, 2016.

The following three parties notified the Secretary of State that they have chosen not to allow NPP voters to request their Party’s Presidential ballot to participate in their Presidential Primary election:

Republican
Green
Peace & Freedom

If an NPP voter wants to vote for a Presidential candidate in the Republican, Green, or Peace and Freedom Party, the NPP voter must re-register to vote with one of those parties by May 23, 2016.