ELECTION 2020: Your presidential-primary ballot is on the way

checkbox.jpgMarch 10th is the official Election Day but you can vote as soon as your ballot arrives. From King County Elections:

King County Elections mailed ballots today, February 19, to over 1.35 million registered voters for the March 10 Presidential Primary. Any voter who has not received their ballot by Monday, February 24 should call King County Elections at 206-296-VOTE (8683).

The Secretary of State mailed voters’ pamphlets last week.

This Presidential Primary will mark the first time in the last four years that voters need to declare a party preference to participate. While Washington voters do not register by party, voters across the state will have to pick a party, check the box, and vote for one candidate from the party they selected. This party preference will remain on the voter rolls for 60 days before being expunged and is publicly disclosable information, per state law.

If you’re not registered, there’s still time – here’s how.

34 Replies to "ELECTION 2020: Your presidential-primary ballot is on the way"

  • Gxnx February 19, 2020 (4:12 pm)

    Me and my friends are voting for Republicans. Just to let you all know…and I am darn proud of it.

  • Chris February 19, 2020 (5:15 pm)

    Does this mean our names are publicly disclosable?Thanks

    • WSB February 19, 2020 (5:33 pm)

      As registered voters, you’re already part of a public database. Is that what you mean?

    • Peter February 19, 2020 (6:49 pm)

      Yes. And when you vote in one party’s primary you are identified as voting for that party, and that is in public record, although who specifically you voted for is not. 

  • rob February 19, 2020 (8:51 pm)

       anyone see the debate it was like watching a circular firing squad

    • Felix Grounds February 20, 2020 (8:17 am)

      It wasn’t really circular, it was just Elizabeth Warren shooting everybody…She’s AWESOME.

    • Nomorechristmaseve’s February 20, 2020 (8:30 am)

      My husband said it reminded him of a drunken Christmas Eve with his family!  Lmao!!!  Its true. 

  • Sixbuck February 19, 2020 (11:02 pm)

    I will fill out and return my ballot but, as always, I refuse to mark a party box. I encourage others to do so in protest. The Republican and Democratic parties are two sides of the same corroded coin!

    • Not counted February 20, 2020 (10:26 am)

      If you do this, your ballot will simply be rejected as an error. The state isn’t going to come back and try to understand your “protest”. You may as well not vote. 

      • Sixbuck February 21, 2020 (1:56 pm)

        I know this  That is why I worded my statement with “in protest”. 

    • Mickymse February 20, 2020 (11:17 am)

      How dare a political party expect my information in order for me to help to pick the nominee for that Party!

      • Sixbuck February 21, 2020 (1:59 pm)

        Actually, how dare our government disseminate that information.  Could you imagine if Nazi Germany or Cold War USSR (maybe even current-day Russia) had such information?

      • Sixbuck February 21, 2020 (2:03 pm)

        My belief is that our government should not be beholden to any political party or parties.  If the Republicans, Democrats, or any other party want to hold a caucus that requires the voter state any political ideology, let that party, or parties, fully fund and execute said vote. It is currently financed by the tax payers, hence we should have no obligation towards any specific party or ideology. 

    • believer in democracy February 20, 2020 (2:31 pm)

      Thanks for wasting my tax dollars.  And if you think anyone on the Democratic side is like the current President, I’ll go on record and say I’m glad you’re not voting.  There’s a choice between authoritarianism and democracy to be made this year, and I hope my fellow citizens are wise enough to recognize that.

      • Mary February 27, 2020 (11:44 pm)

        Exactly!

      • Elliot February 28, 2020 (12:13 am)

        Exactly! That kind of protest isn’t any more valuable than using a public toilet and refusing to flush to protest climate change. It is self indulgent waste. Nothing more.

    • Kathy February 21, 2020 (9:33 am)

      That’s exactly what the Russian meddlers want you to do. Enjoy another 4 years of Trump.

  • Chris February 20, 2020 (9:07 am)

    Peter – on this particular ballot with only one Republican on the ballot, it will be obvious what the person voted.    We are tending to go with Sixbuck on this one.    We will be discussing and thinking over what we are going to do,    Appreciate the comments as they really do help.

    • CAM February 20, 2020 (2:12 pm)

      If you are that ashamed to have yourself publicly associated with someone then maybe you should consider that before voting for them. 

    • Ruth February 21, 2020 (11:18 am)

      Be careful – if you don’t select a party on the ballot, your vote won’t count. It’s required to select a party in order to participate in that party’s primary. It’s of course up to you to vote or not vote as you prefer, but if you opt not to indicate a party, like Sixbuck suggested above, your vote will not count at all. 

  • Scubafrog February 20, 2020 (11:31 am)

    I’m an indie, we don’t get to vote in primaries.  DISGUSTING.

    • Shawn February 20, 2020 (12:08 pm)

      You can actually vote for the Dems even if you only “prefer” them (and vow not to vote in the other primary).Only the republican party’s statement requires to you affirm you literally “are a Republican”.

      • WSB February 20, 2020 (1:08 pm)

        I can confirm this – our ballots just arrived. Here’s the place on the return envelope where you have to check one or the other:

      • Eric1 February 20, 2020 (4:00 pm)

        Thanks Shawn.  I was just going  to send back a blank ballot and just be counted as having voted. But I just might do the prefer thing.  Kind like how I prefer soft tofu to raw liver:  I’d rather skip a meal without eating either of them but I were really starving, I guess I’d “prefer” tofu.

    • VOTE February 20, 2020 (2:28 pm)

      And you’ll go back to being an ‘indie’ after 60 days.  So yes, you can actually choose to help one party or the other choose their nominee with no long-lasting impact to your voter status.  Given that in our system (not the best system to be fair, but the one we have) it is the political parties that nominate the candidates, it’s your choice as to whether you want to  help one do that.

  • Mj February 20, 2020 (5:46 pm)

    The disclosure is on the outside of the envelope, not a good location.  Also as an independent and taxpayer I am chagrined at having to pay for this!

  • Mj February 20, 2020 (10:07 pm)

    And the disclosure is right on the envelope!  Why taxpayers are paying for this is disgraceful, independent voters are not being provided a box to check.  I guess the option is to return a ballot without checking a box?

    • Mary February 27, 2020 (11:42 pm)

      If you want it rejected. Sure. But I can think of more fun ways to waste time.

  • Sixbuck February 21, 2020 (2:14 pm)

    Ok. I filled out and mailed my primary ballot. I simply wrote “refuse” next to the Republican and Democrat boxes, without checking either. Sorry for “wasting your taxpayer dollars”, believer in democracy, but I have very solid reasons for doing what I do. Just to ward off misperceptions, no, I did not mark Trump, but I did mark a candidate. I fully understand that my ballot will not be counted, but this is an issue where I have a long-held and logical belief that this process is unconstitutional and corrupt. Tax payers should not fund ANY political party. 

    • Really? February 21, 2020 (8:25 pm)

      Pretty sure they’re counted by a machine so I’m not sure who you’re hoping to impact with your protest. Surely there are better ways of making your point? 

  • Kathy February 22, 2020 (9:35 am)

    Amy

  • just vote February 23, 2020 (8:01 am)

    When you “refuse” or “protest” in this manner you are literally doing the least you can do. It is a meaningless and insignificant gesture that accomplishes nothing more than generating waste in multiple domains. This kind of silliness will be one of the contributing factors to hairdo’s victory in November. When the house is on fire, you don’t argue over how the interior design looks, you fight the damn fire. So, when we get a second, or third, or forth term out of this maniac and our country is no longer recognizable, you can always rest on the laurels of really having  laid it on the line by “protesting” rather than having your vote counted.

    • Oaken February 27, 2020 (11:33 pm)

      Exactly. Of the 400,000 ballots received so far already 13,000 snowflakes have not declared a party and have had their votes REJECTED. This state has people with a bug up their butt over the slightest requirements demanded of them. That so many would throw their vote away to pull a tantrum that something was required of them speaks volumes. Narcissistic, histrionic, oppositional defiance. Choose whatever ill you have. Just note your candidate, choose your party, sign and date it and go back to your lives. People refusing to do this should have to move to North Korea for a year to experience real oppression.

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