Advertisement CA voters' registration mistake may block vote in presidential primary Voters believe they are registering as independents Share Shares Copy Link Copy

Some California voters who don’t want to be identified with a political party are mistakenly registering with the conservative American Independent Party -- a mistake that would lead to being ineligible to vote for either Republican or Democratic presidential candidates in the state’s June primary.More than 472,000 voters were registered as members of the American Independent Party as of Jan. 5, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. An investigation done by the Los Angeles Times found that 73 percent of voters registering as AIP mistakenly believed they were registering as independent of any party."I figured, American Independent Party, there couldn't be something dreadfully wrong with it,” Placer County voter Nalini Srinivasan said. “And, I saw the word, 'independent,' so I decided to go with it."According to voters and voter advocates, the mistake is due to the way this question is asked on the current voter registration form. The hard copy of the form, called a voter registration “card,” asks, “Do you want to disclose a political party preference?” Voters can choose ‘yes,’ and then choose a political party. The American Independent Party is the first choice listed since the various parties are listed in alphabetical order.On the other hand, a voter can choose “no,” meaning he or she does not want to disclose a party preference. To the surprise of many voters, that is the correct answer for those who do not want to be affiliated with any party.“And normally, California doesn’t have that big of a voice in the presidential primary but this time around, for the first time in decades, we do,” California Voter Foundation President Kim Alexander said. “And, we have all this voter excitement growing in California, which is great. But we’re concerned that there are going to be a number of people who have this in mind -- that we have this open primary or maybe have in mind that they’re an independent when they’re actually not registered that way.”California normally has an open primary, meaning voters can vote for the candidate of their choice, regardless of party affiliation. The exception is the presidential primary.To vote for a Democratic presidential candidate, California voters must either be registered Democrats or registered as “no party preference” by choosing “no – I do not want to disclose a political party preference.”To vote for a Republican presidential candidate, voters can only be registered as Republicans. They may change their registration after voting.Alexander said it’s best to double check registration status now, well ahead of the May 23 deadline to register.“They need to contact their county elections office,” Alexander said. “They need to find out what their registration status is and see what party they're registered with."