Information provided by the San Benito County Elections Office.
The San Benito County Department of Elections is preparing for the March 3 Presidential Primary Elections mailing of the “County Voter Information Guide & Voting Kits,” which is scheduled for the first week in February. This notice is to inform voters of some pre-election mailings and reminders about how to prepare for the Presidential Primary Election.
Most Californians are getting use to the Top-2 Primary which allows all candidates to appear on the same ballot regardless of the political party. This is still true for all voter-nominated offices appearing on the ballot, except for the Office of President. The Office of President will only have candidate(s) of the political party of which the voter is registered. If the voter is not registered with a qualified party/no party preference (independent/declined to state) the Office of President will not appear.
The Department has been conducting several presentations to the community about “Why Political Party Matters?” in the Primary Election. In an effort to inform voters, the Department of Elections is conducting a pre-primary voter notification mailing to all registered voters. There will be two types of voter notifications. The first is to voters that are not affiliated with a qualified party or are listed as no party preference voters. The second is to all voters registered to vote with a qualified political party.
These mailings are sent to affirm with the voters that they are registered correctly at the address and in the party they wish to vote for President. This is an official mailing from the Department of Elections, which is indicated by the “Official Election Mail” logo.
After the 2018 statewide rollout of automatic voter registration through the Department of Motor Vehicles, some voters may have inadvertently had their party registration changed. This issue occurred if voters skipped the party preference question, which caused their party to default to No Party Preference, even if they had previously been registered with a qualified political party.
The San Benito County Elections Department is providing confirmation to voters in advance of the mailing of the official Voting Kits in an effort to allow voters the opportunity to update their registration to the party they wish to vote for President.
Registering or re-registering to vote is easy. You can register online at www.registertovote.ca.gov or call and a voter registration will be sent to you by mail. You can also come to the Department of Elections or visit the Post Office for a paper registration form.
The mailings will begin within the next seven to ten days. Samples of the pre-primary notification mailings are shown in the attached Notice-Party-NNP PDF (below) so voters are able to identify this official mailing. Response to this mailing and/or re-registering is requested by January 2, 2020. Ensuring that voters are registered in the correct address and political party will help ensure the County Voter Information Guide & Voting Kits are sent correctly in our first mailing scheduled the first week in February. If voters fail to respond and the ballot is received with the wrong party or no party preference, they can still request a crossover if available, or re-register with the correct party by Feb. 18.
