by Nimra Ahmad
Voting for the March 12 presidential primary kicked off last week, with ballot boxes now open throughout the state. Vote-by-mail ballots were sent out starting Feb. 21. Voters may return their ballots to drop boxes or by mail in the envelopes provided with the ballots (postage is not needed). Ballots must be postmarked by March 12 if voting by mail, or they must be deposited in ballot boxes by 8 p.m. on March 12. The King County Department of Elections website has a complete list of ballot boxes in the county for this election.
The King County Department of Elections (DOE) projects a 40% turnout for the primary, which would be lower than the 56% turnout in the 2020 presidential primary.
What Is the Presidential Primary?
The presidential primary election allows voters to choose who they’d like to run for the presidential office in November. Currently, the active candidates for each major party are Democrats Joe Biden, Marianne Williamson, and Dean Phillips and Republicans Donald Trump and Nikki Haley. The primaries will help decide who the presidential candidate will be from each party.
The primary election results will be used at the national party conventions, where Democratic and Republican delegates will nominate a candidate for the November general election.
How Do I Vote?
The process of voting in the presidential primary is similar to that of other elections in Washington — ballots are received in the mail, they must be signed and dated, and then must be returned by mail or dropped off in a ballot box. But there’s one key difference with this voting process: Voters must sign a party declaration on their envelopes.
According to the King County DOE, there are comparatively more challenged ballots in presidential primary elections than others because state law requires that voters select a party, and then vote for a candidate of their selected party. Not doing so creates a challenged or incomplete ballot, which can lead to the vote not being counted.
The party declarations voters provide on the presidential primary ballot does not register them as members of that party, nor does it affect how they can participate in future elections. The declarations are included in state records for 60 days, and then are removed.
Note that in the November general election, a party declaration will not be required.
Who Is on the Ballot?
People voting for the Democratic Party candidate will have the options of Biden, Phillips, Williamson — who unsuspended her campaign after the Michigan primary — and “uncommitted delegates.” “Uncommitted delegates” refers to delegates who are not dedicated to a particular candidate, but will instead decide who to vote for at their party’s national convention. On the Republican ballot, the options are Donald Trump, Chris Christie, Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, and Vivek Ramaswamy — the Republican party opted out of the “uncommitted delegates” option.
Several of the candidates on the ballots (Christie, DeSantis, and Ramaswamy) have already dropped out of the race. According to the King County DOE website, this is because the list of running candidates was provided on Jan. 9, before many of the candidates dropped out, and there was no opportunity to withdraw names after that date.
There is not an option to cast a third-party ballot.
What if My Ballot Is Challenged?
If there are any issues with a ballot — such as a missing signature or party declaration — the King County DOE will mail a form to the voter. The voter will have until March 21 at 4:30 p.m. to complete the form and resolve the issue to ensure their vote is counted.
Voters can also provide their phone number and email address in the space provided just under their signature on the ballot envelope or online at VoteWa.gov so they can be notified faster if they run into an issue. Additionally, if a voter wants to track their ballot, they can sign up on the King County DOE website for ballot status alerts and receive automatic text or email alerts as their ballot moves through the certification and counting process, and in the case of challenges to their ballots.
Nimra Ahmad is a news writer for the South Seattle Emerald. She has bylines in Crosscut, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Oglethorpe Echo, and The Red & Black. You can find her on Twitter at @nimra_ahmad22 or email her at Nimra.Ahmad@SeattleEmerald.org.
📸 Featured Image: Photo by Made360/Shutterstock.com
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