Election Integrity Project: "We have never seen such widespread mismanagement or manipulation of the

[Retrograde]

26. No, you have incorrect information

In California, the 6 recognized political parties decide on a per-election basis whether persons registered as No Party Preference - we do not have an "Independent" designation except as part of the name of the American Independent Party - may vote in their partisan primaries. This time, the Democrats and 2 minor parties decided to allow it. The Republicans and 2 minor parties didn't.

The counties - the entities who run the elections - mailed out queries to people registered as NPP about 2 months prior to the election reminding them of this fact and asking them to reply (in my case, via the handy postage-paid card they sent) by a specified date in order to get the ballot they wanted. If not, they got the standard Non-Partisan ballot, which had all the races except president and party-specific offices, because county registrars are not expected to be mind readers.

California voters get at least 2 pieces of official information about a month before each election. One is the state voter's guide, which contains general information about the election process and information on all state-wide propositions and candidates. A summary of the voting information can be found here.

In addition, each county sends out a separate guide that contains details on local issues, a sample copy of the ballot, the voter's polling site (even permanent vote-by-mail voters like me have an assigned polling site), and an application for a mail ballot. This also tells the voter which party the county thinks he or she is registered with. If a long-term voters believe they were Republicans and now suddenly get Green Party sample ballots this is when they should contact their registrar and get the problem fixed while there is still time.

This story about voters' registrations being mysteriously changed seems to come up with every election Sanders loses, and I have my doubts that it's a real conspiracy. I think a large number of these people are casual voters who haven't bothered to check their registrations, or registered in a specific party for one election and forgot to change back (as was the case with one DUer who swore she had "mysteriously" become a Republican, only to have some other posters dig up some old posts in which she mentioned making the change herself and forgetting to change back). Since Obama was the only Democratic candidate running in California's 2012 Democratic presidential party, and since the 2014 governor and senate primaries were run under the new Top Two procedure, the last time many Californians voted in an election where party made a difference was the 2010 primary.

Mistakes do sometimes happen: the process is run by humans after all. But there are mechanisms in place to correct the mistakes - if they're brought to the attention of the right people in time to do something. California does a lot to inform voters - in multiple languages - but there are still people who find it easier to post complaints than to read the voters guides.