Senate Bill 113 (Calderon), Chapter 2, Statutes of 2007, created a February 5, 2008, Presidential Primary Election.  The election is limited to presidential primary candidates and, as required by California Constitution Article II, Sections 8 and 9, any initiative measure or referendum that qualifies in time for a statewide election ballot.  The primary election in June will include races for United States Congress, the California Legislature, and statewide ballot measures, and potentially local races depending on the community where you live.

Primary elections are held to determine which nominee in each political party will represent the party in the general election.  Voters who are registered with a political party are eligible to vote only in that party’s primary election and not in any other party primary election.  Some political parties allow voters who are not registered with any political party – also known as “decline-to-state” voters – to vote in the party’s primary.  The winning candidate from each party moves on to the general election and all voters, regardless of their political party registration, are allowed to vote for any candidate on that ballot.

The Democratic and American Independent parties are allowing decline-to-state voters (voters who did not choose to affiliate with any political party) to cast ballots in their presidential primaries on February 5.

Elections Code section 3205(b) requires local elections officials to mail all decline-to-state voters who are registered as permanent vote-by-mail voters a notice and application regarding voting in the primary election. The notice shall inform the voter that he or she may request a vote-by-mail ballot for a particular political party for the primary election if that party authorized decline-to-state voters to vote in their primary.

Elections Code section 13102 requires local elections officials to provide vote-by-mail and polling place voters with a nonpartisan ballot unless they ask for a ballot that would allow them to vote in a particular party’s primary. The law does not specify how local elections officials are to let decline-to-state voters know they have such an option.

You can look up your polling place at http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_ppl.htm. If you can’t find your polling place, you are permitted to cast a provisional ballot at any polling place in the county in which you are registered to vote.

Presidential candidates will be awarded a certain number of delegates based on how they finish in the February 5, 2008, Presidential Primary Election. Those delegates then participate in their party’s national convention. Electors are people who are members of the Electoral College and who will vote for President on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December (after the November 4, 2008, General Election).

Each party awards its delegates differently according to their respective bylaws and statutes. For more information about the six different political parties in California, you can find out how to contact them directly at http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_f.htm.

Elections Code section 9084 specifies what information is to be included in the statewide official Voter Information Guides, and this statute does not make any reference to presidential candidates.

However, candidate statements are available at http://voterguide.sos.ca.gov/cand_state/cand_statements.html.

The initiative process is the power of the people to place statutes and constitutional amendments on the ballot. If the initiative proposes to amend California statutes, the proponents must gather petition signatures of registered voters equal to 5% of the total votes cast for Governor in the last gubernatorial election. If the initiative proposes to amend the California Constitution, the signature requirement is 8%.

Referendum is the power of the people to approve or reject statutes already adopted by their Legislature. However, this does not apply to statutes that have urgency clauses, call for elections, or provide for tax levies or appropriations for current expenses of the state. Voters wishing to preclude a legislatively adopted statute from taking effect must gather signatures of registered voters equal in number to 5% of the votes cast for all candidates for Governor in the previous gubernatorial election.

A "yes" vote approves and a "no" vote rejects a proposed statute or constitutional amendment placed on the ballot through the initiative process.

A "yes" vote approves a statute previously adopted by the Legislature and allows it to take effect. A "no" vote rejects the statute that had been adopted by the Legislature and precludes it from taking effect.

Arguments in favor of and against ballot measures are provided by the proponents and opponents of the ballot measures. If multiple arguments are submitted for or against a measure, Elections Code section 9067 gives first priority to arguments written by legislators in the case of legislative measures, and arguments written by the proponents of an initiative or referendum in the case of an initiative or referendum measure. Subsequent priority for all measures goes to bona fide associations of citizens and then to individual voters. The submitted argument language cannot be verified for accuracy or changed in any way unless a court orders it to be changed.

Once an initiative has qualified, there is no legal mechanism to remove it from the ballot even if the proponents no longer support it.

Elections Code sections 9067 and 9084 require the Secretary of State to publish the official initiative proponent's argument in the official Voter Information Guide. The law does not permit the Secretary of State to check any argument for accuracy and/or alter it unless a court requires changes.

The four referenda are listed in a second official Voter Information Guide. California Constitution Article II, Section 8(c), requires initiatives to qualify for the ballot 131 days before a statewide election. Once that date passes, the Secretary of State begins the formal process of assembling and printing the official Voter Information Guide that is mailed to every voting household in the state.

California Constitution Article II, Section 9(c), permits referenda to qualify just 31 days before a statewide election. Proposition 94, 95, 96, and 97 are referenda that qualified for the ballot long after the official Voter Information Guide had been sent to print. The Secretary of State produced a supplemental official Voter Information Guide that was subsequently mailed to every voting household in the state.

Both guides are available at http://voterguide.sos.ca.gov/.

County elections officials must read and tabulate write-in votes by hand. This occurs after most votes are tallied for all the candidates listed on the ballot (after the semifinal official canvass period is completed).

Elections Code section 15375(c) requires county elections officials to report vote totals for write-in candidates to the Secretary of State 28 days after the election.

Presidential candidates are not required to be registered voters of the political party whose ballot they run on. More than one political party may request that a particular candidate be placed on their ballot. Both the Green and Peace & Freedom parties included Ralph Nader and Cynthia McKinney on their primary ballots.

This is a primary election, not a general election. Candidate vote totals in other parties have no impact on each party’s nomination.

Each county elections office processes its ballots differently. Elections Code section 15151 requires county elections officials to send their initial results to the Secretary of State’s office no more than two hours after they begin tallying the votes after polls close on election night. Elections offices continue to report results periodically until all precinct vote totals have been reported.

Elections Code section 15101 allows voters to cast ballots up to 29 days before Election Day, and many voters do this by voting by mail. Elections Code section 15101 allows counties to begin opening vote-by-mail ballots up to seven business days before Election Day, but those results cannot be accessed or shared with the public until the polls close at 8:00 p.m. on Election Day.

Many elections officials choose to tally and report these early voted ballots first, instead of waiting for ballots or results to come in from the individual precincts. As a result, because no full precincts have been tallied and reported, the results from these early voted ballots that are reported to the Secretary of State’s website simply appear as raw vote totals because in this initial stage, they are not attributed to individual precincts.

All valid vote-by-mail ballots that county elections officials determine have been cast by eligible voters are counted and included in the official election results. Elections Code sections 15375(c) and (e) give elections officials 28 days to complete this process for presidential primary candidates and gives county elections officials 35 days for statewide ballot measures. This time period is often referred to as the "official canvass."

Provisional ballots are those ballots cast by voters who believe they are registered to vote, but their names do not appear on the official voter registration list. Voters who believe the official voter registration list incorrectly lists their political party affiliation can also vote provisionally. Finally, voters who receive a vote-by-mail ballot but arrive at the polls requesting the opportunity to vote in person because they cannot locate their vote-by-mail ballot are asked to use a provisional ballot to ensure they do not cast two ballots. All provisional ballots that county elections officials determine have been cast by eligible voters are counted and added to the official vote tally.

Elections Code sections 15375(c) and (e) give elections officials 28 days to complete this process for presidential primary candidates and gives county elections officials 35

A close contest is one in which there is less than a 2% difference between first and second place.

Results will be updated after all provisional ballots and vote-by-mail ballots are tallied. Depending on the volume of these types of ballots, it may take many more days for county elections officials to verify voter records and determine if ballots have been cast by eligible voters. Furthermore, results may be adjusted based on the results of post-election manual tally processes, frequently referred to as post-election audit processes, that are required by law.

How often these results are updated will vary based on the size of each county and the process each local elections office uses to tally and report votes.

Elections Code section 15375(c) requires elections officials to report their final results for presidential primary candidates to the Secretary of State 28 days after Election Day, which for this election is March 4. Elections Code section 15375 (e) requires elections officials to report their final results for statewide ballot measures to the Secretary of State 35 days after Election Day, which for this election is March 11. This time period is often referred to as the "official canvass."

The Secretary of State then has four more days to certify the results of the election which, in this case, is March 8 for presidential primary candidates and March 15 for statewide ballot measures.