Hey Californians….do you know you might miss the opportunity to vote your presidential choice in the 2020 primary? Read on, my friends.

California has what’s called a “jungle primary” system. That means that, in most cases, all the candidates from all the parties appear on all the ballots. The two highest vote-getters progress to the General, even if they are members of the same party. There is one exception: President of the United States.

The State passed the Voter’s Choice Act in 2016, to make voting easier. Each county sends every registered voter a ballot ahead of each election. Voters can mail in their ballot, drop it off, early vote or vote on Election Day. Good so far, right? We love ballot access! But the issue is who will be on your ballot?

In California, as of the latest stats, 43.1% of voters are registered Democrats, 23.6% are registered Republicans and the rest are either other parties or “no party affiliation”, for a total of 33.3%. The ballots sent by the ballot will have all the candidates on them for all the parties EXCEPT only registered Democrats will receive the Democratic line (and yeah, the Republicans will receive a Republican line – shout out to William Weld.) Therefore, a third of Californian voters will not be able to vote for their presidential choice if they mail in their ballots — they will only be able to vote that line in person.

Now, all non-aligned voters will receive a post card in late November/early December asking them to declare a party preference, which will dictate which ballot they receive in February. As an aside, California ballots will be mailed on 3 February, which is the date of the Iowa caucuses. This means that some Californians will vote prior to the New Hampshire primary on the 11th and South Carolina on the 15th.

So, Californians, if you want to vote in the Democratic primary in 2020 (and seriously, who doesn’t?) make sure to return that post card — remember it might get lost in the throngs of holiday cards and promotional materials that inundate us all at that time of year.

I’ll have another post in the near future of what it means to the delegate tallies by California having moved its primary up to Super Tuesday on 3 March.