SPOKANE COUNTY, Wash. — With just over two weeks ahead of when ballots are due for Washington’s primary election, Spokane County started sending ballots out to voters. Voters should see theirs in the mail any time now.
One thing voters should know is that this ballot is a little different than the ones they normally fill out.
The first thing that is different is how you fill out the ballot. You will see two different boxes, one for Republicans and the other for Democrats. Voters can only fill out one of those boxes. If you fill out both, your vote will not count! Make sure to only mark one box.
After you mark your ballot, there is one more thing you need to do. Once the ballot is folded up and put inside the envelope, you must write on the outside of the ballot which box you voted for. Ultimately, you are marking your vote on the ballot itself as well as on the envelope. The box you mark on the outside must match which party you voted for on the actual ballot.
In Washington, there are several options for both parties on the ballot, however, not all of the candidates are still in the race. For the Republicans, the only two still running are Donald Trump and Nikki Haley. For the Democrats, it is Joe Biden and Dean Phillips. The Democratic Party also has an option for “Uncommitted Delegates” which means delegates go to whoever wins the primary, but you do not have to support a specific candidate.
Once the primary is over, the Democrat party will give delegates to every candidate who gets at least 15 percent of the vote. The more votes they get will determine how many delegates they receive.
The Republican Party will give delegates to anyone who gets more than 20 percent of the votes. If any candidate gets more than half of the votes, they will receive all of the delegates.
Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said, " The nomination of president with the political parties has to be done by the party process. So as people are watching the news, you notice other states are doing this like New Hampshire and Iowa, and some of them are caucus states and some are primary states, but it's an internal party process and this is backed up by the US Supreme Court.”
For Washington’s primary, ballots have to be postmarked or dropped in a ballot box by March 12 at 8 p.m.
If you are not registered to vote yet, you can still register online or by mail until March 4 and you can register in person until March 12.
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