PART III. PRESIDENTIAL PREFERENCE PRIMARY

§1280.21. Presidential preference primary election

A. A statewide presidential preference primary election shall be held on the first Saturday in March in 2016 and every fourth year thereafter for the purpose of allowing the electors of each political party in the state which has forty thousand or more registered members to express their preference for a person to be the nominee of the party for president of the United States.

B. Each elector voting in such election may vote only for a candidate who is affiliated with the same party as the elector, except that the state central committee of a recognized political party may allow in its bylaws, electors who are not affiliated with any political party to cast a vote on the ballot of such recognized political party.

C. The state central committee shall notify the Department of State that its bylaws allow for such voting by non-affiliated electors no later than seven days prior to the opening of qualifying for the presidential preference primary. Such notification shall be considered valid and effective for subsequent presidential preference primaries unless the state central committee notifies the Department of State that its bylaws no longer allow for such voting by non-affiliated electors no later than seven days prior to the opening of qualifying for a presidential preference primary.

D. Any elector who is not affiliated with any political party and who is allowed to cast his vote on the ballot of a recognized political party in the presidential preference primary pursuant to this Section shall cast his vote on the ballot of only one recognized political party.

E. Notwithstanding any provisions of this Code to the contrary, in any statewide presidential preference primary election, at any precinct where the presidential preference issue or election of political party officials or both are the only matters on the ballot, the number of election commissioners required in such precinct shall be one commissioner-in-charge and two commissioners.

Added by Acts 1979, No. 684, §1, eff. Dec. 1, 1979; S.C.R. No. 4, 1983 2nd Ex. Sess.; Acts 1986, No. 35, §1, eff. June 17, 1986; Acts 1986, No. 427, §1; Acts 2004, No. 678, §1; Acts 2006, No. 845, §1, eff. Jan. 1, 2007; Acts 2011, No. 293, §1; Acts 2014, No. 792, §1.