Nonpartisan voters who want to vote for president: what you need to know

Calling all nonpartisan registered voters! If they vote by mail and want to vote for president, nonpartisan voters need to inform the Registrar of Voters which mail ballot they want by Jan. 6. Otherwise, the nonpartisan mail ballot will not show any presidential candidates.

Several weeks ago, the registrar sent the county’s nearly 350,000 nonpartisan mail ballot voters a pre-paid return postcard requesting their selection of ballot options for the March 3 primary election. If a voter is registered nonpartisan and just signed up to become a mail ballot voter, they can expect a postcard outlining their options sometime this week.

So far, nearly 37,000 nonpartisan voters have returned their postcards or reregistered. If that postcard became lost among all the holiday mail, here is what nonpartisan voters need to know.

The American Independent, Democratic and Libertarian parties are allowing nonpartisan voters to take part in their presidential primaries, but nonpartisan voters must request one of these ballots to vote for that party’s presidential candidate. Their status as a nonpartisan voter will not change.

Without the postcard, nonpartisan voters can still go to http://www.sdvote.com to fill out the application and email it. Make sure they are registered to vote and listed as a nonpartisan mail ballot voter before filling it out.

The Green, Peace and Freedom and Republican parties are not allowing nonpartisan voters to take part in their presidential primaries. Nonpartisan voters wishing to vote for one of these parties’ presidential candidates must reregister to do so.

All voters can check their registration, reregister and register to vote at http://www.sdvote.com. The registrar’s office urges voters to do so well before the Feb. 18, registration deadline to avoid long delays on Election Day. For more information, call (858) 565-5800 or visit http://www.sdvote.com.