2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Is anybody going to talk about the claim about Sanders possibly winning California? [View all]politicaljunkie41910
(3,335 posts)Anyone can request a provisional ballot on election day, if their name doesn't show up on the voter's roll. This doesn't mean that their vote will count. This means that they can vote until the matter is investigated. Independents were not eligible to vote in the CA Democratic Primary. Only Democrats and No Preference Party (NPP) Candidates could vote in the CA Primary, but you would have had to register as either a Democrat or a NPP to receive a Presidental Candidate Ballot. If you were a registered Democrat. You would have automatically received a Presidential Ballot. If you were registered as an NPP, you had to request a Presidential Ballot. If you were registered as anything other than a Democrat or a NPP you were not eligible to receive a Presidential Candidate Ballot and were only eligible to vote for down ballot candidates. If you were something other than those two listed and received a provisional ballot which included Presidential Candidates, you should not have been eligible to vote for the Democratic Presidential candidates.
If you got bad information, it was your candidate's fault. CA had one of the latest registration deadlines, and one of the easiest on-line registration processes. After reading all the hoopla on DU I went on line to see how easy/difficult it was to register. Even though I was already registered, I thought the instructions were pretty easy to follow even as regards to the NPP even though I had no previous experience with it. I had no need for it this time as it stands, but I was simply trying to see how simple/difficult the instructions were to follow.
CA also had the latest return date for Mail-in Ballots with ballots having to be postmarked by midnight on election day. Any ballot postmarked by midnight on election day was to be counted, regardless of when received. Most states require that your mail in ballot be received on or before election day to count.
FTR, the CA GOP had a closed election on July 7. Only registered Republicans could vote in their primary. Independents could not and NPPs could not. I don't recall hearing a single story reported in the news where Independents who wanted to vote for Trump said that they were disenfranchised because they were not allowed to vote. I already expressed my opinion to the CA DNC Party that if the GOP can have a Closed Primary so that only registered members of their party can vote, than so why can't we. The matter will be reviewed after the dust settles and the air clears. I live in an area which is predominately GOP and they were planning to reek havoc on the Dem Primary by changing their registration to NPP so that they could vote for Bernie since Trump had already solidified the minimum number of GOP delegates prior to June 7 to secure the GOP nomination.