DENVER — Noncommitted normally means a 20-something dude who wants to keep things casual.
Noncommitted on Colorado’s Democratic presidential primary ballot is surprisingly much more confusing.
Colorado’s presidential primary is March 5. The Democratic ballot includes nine names, with the last one being “noncommitted delegate.”
Christine from Fort Collins emailed Next wanting to know “is there a benefit to voting for an uncommitted delegate on the Democratic primary ballot?”
“Noncommitted delegate is, actually, a choice. It doesn’t mean none of the above or anything like that,” Shad Murib, Colorado Democratic Party chairman, said. “They’re not necessarily casting a protest vote against the president, they’re actually sending a choice for a noncommitted delegate to, then, make their choice of the remaining candidates at the Chicago convention.”
Let us take a step back first.
The presidential primary is not a winner-take-all election like most candidate elections. The primary guides the Colorado Democratic and Republican parties for how many delegates they send to their national conventions to support specific candidates.
Colorado Democrats have 87 delegates for the national convention in Chicago in August.
Colorado Republicans have 37 delegates for the national convention in Milwaukee in July.
“If any candidate receives 15% of a threshold of the presidential primary vote, they earn a delegate of one of our 87 delegates to go to Chicago to go to nominate our candidate for the president,” Murib said.
For the Democrats, if any candidate, including noncommitted delegate, received 15% support statewide or 15% support in any of the state’s eight Congressional Districts, the party will send a delegate or delegates to the national convention to cast a vote for, literally, no one. At least in the first round of voting. If the national convention requires multiple rounds of voting, the noncommitted delegate would be allowed to choose whomever they want.
The ballot instructions that come with your presidential primary ballot are not that specific. They simply explain how to properly vote for one and return your ballot, but not how the primary is not winner-take-all.
“We have our delegate selection plan on our website, and it’s a very public process. That said, it is really complicated and confusing,” Murib said. “It’s certainly something to think about, especially as we continue this system.”
The Democratic ballot still includes the name of Marianne Williamson. While she has dropped out of the race, she has not submitted paperwork to the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office to withdraw, so any vote for her would be counted.
The same is true for several names on the Republican ballot.
Four of the seven candidates have stopped running for office, but they also have not submitted withdrawal paperwork to the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office. Votes for Vivek Ramaswamy, Asa Hutchinson, Ron DeSantis and Chris Christie will still be counted, and delegates could still be sent on their behalf to the Republican National Convention.
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