ACR 145: Presidential primary elections: advisory ballots.

Existing provisions of the California Constitution require the Legislature to provide for primary elections for partisan offices, including an open presidential primary election whereby the candidates on the ballot are those found by the Secretary of State to be recognized candidates throughout the nation or throughout California for the office of President of the United States, and those whose names are placed on the ballot by petition, but excluding any candidate who has withdrawn by filing an affidavit of noncandidacy. Existing statutory provisions proscribe the procedures for specified political parties to select delegates to the partys national convention, at which the party chooses its candidate for the office of President of the United States.

For a partisan primary election, existing law requires one form of ballot to be provided for each qualified political party and one form of nonpartisan ballot to be provided, as specified. Existing law requires a voter who is not registered as disclosing a preference for any one of the political parties participating in the election to be furnished with a nonpartisan ballot, unless he or she requests a ballot of a political party and that party authorizes a person who has declined to disclose a party preference to vote the ballot of the party, as specified.

This measure would urge the Secretary of State to exercise his or her authority to establish a new advisory voting process that would allow specified voters to cast an advisory ballot in the presidential primary election, as specified. This measure would encourage each political party that participates in the presidential primary election to consider the results of the advisory ballots in selecting the partys nominee for the office of President of the United States.