• A political party is a group of people who share the same ideas about how the government should be run and what it should do. Parties work to win elections and change laws.

• It does not cost anything to join a party. You do not have to do anything for the party that you choose.

• In the June State Primary, California voters will help narrow down the choices of candidates for political offices to just one from each political party. The winning candidates from each party will run against each other in the November General Election.

• Your County Elections office will mail a Sample Ballot to all registered voters in your county before the election. Your Sample Ballot will include everything you can vote on. Because Primary Elections are to help narrow down the choices of candidates for political offices to just one from each political party in the November General Election, the sample ballot you receive in the mail will only list the candidates competing to represent your political party.

There are six “qualified” parties in California, which means they have enough members to run candidates for office. New political parties can be started if they get enough people to be members.

What Is Decline to State?

If you do not want to register with a political party in California (you want to be “independent” of any political party), mark “Decline to State” on the registration form. If you register “Decline to State,” your June ballot will not have any candidates for U.S. Representative, State Assembly or State Senate on it. However, these three political parties will let you vote with their ballot for their candidates.
    American Independent Party
    Democratic Party
    Republican Party

If you are registered “Decline to State” and want to vote for candidates from one of these parties, you must ask for that ballot when you go to your polling place on election day. If you plan to vote by mail, you must write on the application the name of the political party whose ballot you want to use.

If you want to be able to vote for a candidate for one of the other three political parties not listed above, you will need to fill our a new registration form and choose to join that party. Send it to your County Elections office to arrive by registration deadline.

It is helpful to understand that Decline to State ballots are only confusing like this when it’s a Primary Election. That’s because of the reason for a Primary Election, which is to help narrow the number of candidates for each political party to just one. The winners for each political party in the primary election run against each other in the General Election.