Angela Curro, assistant registrar of voters, explained at the recent San Benito County Board of Supervisors’ meeting that the Registrar’s Office is providing an outreach packet to voters in order to let them know what’s in store for this year before they choose their candidates.
“This is a presidential primary election in June and it’s also a California statewide primary election for U.S. Senate,” she said. “That means we have party ballots, which means you have to be registered to vote in party in order to be able to vote for the president. If you’re voting for U.S. Senate you do not have to be registered in the party.”
The reason for the packet, Curro said, is to inform voters who want to vote for president that they need to be registered with a particular party unless they are registered as a “no-party preference voter,” or “no partisan,” indicating they’re not affiliated with one of the six qualified political parties.
“If you are registered no party preference you have the ability to cross over and vote for president,” she said. “There are only three parties that allow that: Democrat, American Independent and Libertarian.”
Curro said that if someone chooses to vote in one of the other three parties—Republican, Peace and Freedom or Green—they would have to re-register by May 23. “If you’re a vote-by-mail voter we request that you re-register immediately because ballots go out 29 days before the election,” she said.
In the handout she showed the board, Curro said there were 34 candidates for U.S. Senate. She said there are seven Democrat candidates, 12 Republicans, one Peace and Freedom, two Libertarian, one Green, and 11 with no party preference.
“Because of the large volume of candidates, we are trying to reach out to the community and let everyone know that they (candidates) will appear in two columns on the ballot,” Curro said. “That means it’s a vote for one, not a vote for two. You only get to vote for one candidate for U.S. Senate. We are doing a flyer with all vote-by-mail voting and we’re doing an outreach program and training our election officers to instruct voters on Election Day.”
More than 5,000 crossover notices went out to the no-party preference voters, Curro said, in order to let the voters know that they have choices and a form to fill out if they want to cross over because the registrar needs to have it in writing.
For more information, contact the Voter Registrar’s Office at (831) 636-4016. The office is located at 440 Fifth St. in Hollister.
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