What Will Kane County Presidential Ballots Look Like for the March 15 Primary?
Happy Super Tuesday.
As this is written (Tuesday, March 1, 2016), voting is going on in 13 states and one territory — Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Wyoming and American Samoa, to be exact — and there will be delegates chosen in presidential primary/caucus races on the Republican and Democratic ballots.
But regardless of the Super Tuesday outcome, each person’s vote counts here in Kane County, and our chance is coming up on March 15. In fact, early voting already is in full swing, so we’ve got some deciding to do.
To see a list of presidential candidates for both major political parties, go to the Kane County Clerk’s Office Election webpage or check out the print or online version of the Clerk’s Office Voter Information Guide. You can also click this link for the PDF version of the Voter Guide.
Another great resources is your very own personalized Kane County sample ballot, also available on the Clerk’s Office www.kanevotes.com webpages. Here’s a “how-to” article for accessing the online sample ballot.
On that Kane County sample ballot, you might notice that there’s a long list of presidential primary candidates on the ballot, even though many contenders already have formally bowed out of the race. The New York Times reports that, as of Feb. 20, 2016, two Democrats and five Republicans are still in the running for their party’s 2016 presidential nomination. They are (in the order presented on the Kane County sample ballot) Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders and Republicans Donald J. Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, John R. Kasich and Ben Carson.
If you’re a first-time presidential primary voter, you’ll also notice that, on the March 15 ballot, you’ll have a chance to vote not only for a presidential candidate but for delegates to each party’s national convention, as well. Next to the name of each delegate candidate is the name of a presidential candidate, who is the delegates “preference” for president of the United States.
On the Kane County sample ballot, the Democratic list of delegates looks like this:
On the Kane County Republican primary sample ballot, the list of delegates is much longer and looks like this:
It should be noted that the delegate selection process is not the same for the Republican and Democratic parties. Each party sets its own rules, but one thing that’s the same for both major parties is that a candidate needs a simple majority of the delegate votes to win the nomination.
According to Reuters, the Democratic convention will be attended by about 4,763 delegates, with 2,382 delegates needed to win the nomination. The Republican convention will be attended by 2,472 delegates, with 1,237 delegates needed to win.
When you go to vote in the Illinois primary, you’ll have to choose just one political party’s ballot — you can’t vote as both a Republican and as a Democrat.
You can vote for just one presidential candidate, but you can pick three delegates.
In July 2016, Philadelphia will host the 47th Democratic National Convention and Cleveland will host the 41st Republican National Convention.
Republican
FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
- Jeb Bush
- Chris Christie
- Donald J. Trump
- Ted Cruz
- Marco Rubio
- Rand Paul
- Carly Fiorina
- Mike Huckabee
- Rick Santorum
- John R. Kasich
- Ben Carson
Democrat
FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
- Hillary Clinton
- Willie L. Wilson
- Martin J. O’Malley
- Roque “Rocky” De La Fuente
- Larry (Lawrence) Cohen
- Bernie Sanders
- Write-in
