Attention, registered non-partisan voters in California

A mailing sent by county registrars of voters in California (I received this today), which seems to have been intended to be sent only to people with permanent absentee voter status, which I’m not, wrongly states that registered non-partisans who wish to vote in the February 5th presidential primaries in the Democratic or American Independent Party (the Supreme Court decided that the political parties are private groups can choose to abide or not abide by the state’s open primaries law, although for some reason the taxpayers still foot the bill for the primary elections for these private groups) have to return the form by November 26. This is only true for absentee ballots, and I’m not even sure (after a discussion with my county registrar’s office) that it’s a hard and fast deadline for that. If you vote in person and are a registered non-partisan, you can decide on election day to request a Dem or AmInd ballot. You can also vote for presidential candidates in those or any other party if you register by January 21. And since the only office being voted on in February is president, you can change your registration again in time for the June primary. (Update: in June 2008, non-partisans can vote in the Democratic or Republican primaries.)

There will also be propositions on the February ballot. And the June ballot. And the November ballot.

(Update: in response to a question in the comments to this post, I have tried to explain our strange Californian voting ways for those who are interested. Reading the explanation is also a completely legal means of achieving a state of mind usually attainable only through the ingestion of certain illegal substances. For my next trick, I will attempt to explain Trumpington’s Variation to the rules of Mornington Crescent.)