• Your party registration is important: it determines the contests on your ballot. Read "Whom can I vote for in the March primary?".
• Many counties will have new voting equipment. See a list of counties and their voting equipment.
• If you registered to vote after January 2003, you may have to show identification if you did not include an official identification number on your registration form.
• If you vote with a "provisional ballot" because your name was not on the list at your polling place, you will be able to find out if your vote was counted. (What is a provisional ballot, and why might my name not be on the list?). Beginning in January 2004, each county in California will have to establish a process to notify voters whether their ballot was counted or not and, if not, why the ballot was not eligible.
• There is a new list of Voter’s Rights that will be posted at each polling place. (See posters in several languages.)

WHOM CAN I VOTE FOR IN THE MARCH PRIMARY - OR HOW OPEN IS THIS PRIMARY, ANYWAY?!

California currently has a modified closed primary system.

If you are registered with a political party, your ballot will include your party's candidates for federal and state offices as well as four statewide propositions and probably some races and measures in your county.

If you are not registered with a political party ("decline to state" or "unaffiliated"), you may participate in a party’s primary election if that party allows unaffiliated voters to do so. For this election, an unaffiliated voter may request and vote a ballot for these parties:

• American Independent
• Democratic (all candidates except those for county central committees), or
• Republican (all candidates except Presidential and county central committee candidates).

Unaffiliated voters who go to the polls must ask for one of the three parties' ballots if they do not want a ballot for nonpartisan offices and measures only.  Poll workers are not obligated to inform unaffiliated voters that they have a choice of ballot.

To see the various ballot choices, use our "Find My Ballot" function and select the possible "Decline to State" options.

Decide which ballot you want to vote - a nonpartisan or a party ballot.  You may need to change your voter registration if you want a particular party's ballot.  Fill out a voter registration card (available at city halls, post offices, libraries, and online) and mark the political party of your choice.  The registration card must be delivered to your county's Elections Office or be postmarked by the February 17, 2004 deadline.

Permanent absentee voters who are unaffiliated will receive a letter from their Elections Office asking if they want to vote one of the three parties' ballots. Unaffiliated voters requesting an absentee ballot just for the March election should also request a party's ballot if they do not want just the nonpartisan ballot.