More Clarification on who can vote in primaries using Same Day Registration

Category: Front Page News Front Page News
Published: 09 May 2024 09 May 2024

Independents Can Vote in Primaries using Same Day Registration.
Frost McGahey

The Grant County Beat was given incorrect information about how Independents and Declined to State can vote in the primaries. An election official from the Secretary of State's office said that only Democrats could vote in the Democratic Primary. That person failed to add that if an Independent used Same Day Registration, they could vote.

"Each polling place must have a Same Day Registration clerk to process voters who wish to change their registration in order to vote in the primaries. If you are not a Democrat, Republican, or Libertarian, you can re-register and vote," said Janice Arnold Jones, a former legislator who was a head of the Voter and Elections Committee.

Same Day Registration (SDR) can be used during early voting, which began May 7,2024, or on Election Day, June 4, 2024. A voter needs to go to their polling place and state that they want to use SDR and RE-REGISTER as a Democrat or Republican.

Two Grant County races have no Republican running in them so the winner of the Democrat primary will be elected. The races are for County Clerk and Magistrate Judge.

Randy Hernandez and Connie Holguin are running for County Clerk.
Patrick Snedeker and Matt Runnels are competing for Magistrate Judge.

A member of the League of Republican Women sent the Beat the link to find the information on SDR at the Secretary of State's website. It was extremely hard to find otherwise. Putting in the words Same Day Registration yielded nothing in the search engine. A voter had to put in SDR.

Also, in the brochure sent out by the Grant County Clerk's office there is a section on Same Day Registration that only mentions DTS (Declined to State), not Independents. However, another panel shows Closed Primary and states only Democrats, Republicans, and Libertarians can vote.

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