And independents, voters who decline to state a party, can also vote for any candidate. That remains true for this election, with one major hitch. In the presidential race, while voters can vote for any of the candidates, the Democrats and Republicans will only count the votes of members of their own parties toward the contest to win delegates to the nominating conventions. Any citizen at least 18 years old who has already registered to vote at a California address can cast a ballot on March 7. Check your sample ballot for your poll location.
State law requires the secretary of state to count the popular vote for the presidential candidates.
However, neither the Democrats nor the Republicans will use this count to select their presidential nominees. Under Republican and Democratic party rules, only the votes from their own registered party members will be used to determine which candidate's delegates are sent to the national nominating conventions this summer. The results will include the winner of the overall popular vote, the winners of the GOP and Democratic primaries, and the apportionment of GOP and Democratic delegates. Primary votes cast for president are used to determine how many delegates a candidate will get at the nominating convention. In the case of Democrats, the delegates are apportioned based on a candidate's share of the votes in each congressional district.