[EL] ELB News and Commentary 1/2/20

[Paul Gronke]

Not of the same magnitude as in California, but a similar issue may come up in Oregon. I wonder about the automatically registered citizens (over 300,000), of whom 85% are registered as NAV.

I expect to see the parties attempt to get many of these registrants to affiliate, but it’s not clear how well this will work, and if many will be surprised and disappointed not to be able to vote in what may be a still competitive primary contest in May.

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Paul Gronke
Professor, Reed College
Director, Early Voting Information Center
http://earlyvoting.net

General Inquiries: Laura Swann swannla at reed.edu

Media Inquiries: Kevin Myers myersk at reed.edu

> On Jan 2, 2020, at 1:52 PM, Levitt, Justin <justin.levitt at lls.edu> wrote:
> 
> Unaffiliated voters and the California primaries <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108663>
> Posted on January 2, 2020 1:37 pm <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=108663> by Justin Levitt <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=4>
> Jessica Levinson forecasts coming confusion in California <https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-01-02/no-preference-party-presidential-primary-california>, a heavily absentee-voting state where voters have now been trained on a “top two” state primary (in which voters can vote on all candidates, no matter their party registration).   But the top two system doesn’t apply to the presidential primary.
> 
> This year, the California vote is likely to be quite meaningful in the presidential nominating contest … and voters not already registered in the Democratic party (among others) will have to request a partisan absentee ballot in order to vote in the primary.  That’s an extra step that local election officials are doing their best to highlight, but still likely to cause some confusion come election day itself.
> 
> <image001.png> <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D108663&title=Unaffiliated%20voters%20and%20the%20California%20primaries>
> Posted in political parties <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=25>, primaries <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=32>
> 
> 

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