'Top Two' primary guidelines released

Secretary of State Sam Reed's office has released the long-awaited ballot guidelines for the "Top Two" primary this summer, created to "winnow the number of candidates to two for the General Election."

The main rules for the ballot are as follows.

• Each candidate for partisan office may state a political party that he or she prefers.

• A candidate's preference does not imply that the candidate is nominated or endorsed by the party, or that the party approves of or associates with that candidate.

• A candidate states his or her party preference on the Declaration of Candidacy.

• Each candidate is allowed up to 16 characters for the name of the political party.

• A candidate may also choose to not state a preference for a political party.

• A candidate is not required to obtain approval from a party in order to state a preference for that party.

So candidates on the ballot will look something like this, according to the Sec. of State:

John Smith
(Prefers Example Party)

or

John Smith
(States No Party Preference)

Furthermore, the release reiterates that there will be no show of endorsements on the ballot.

• Political parties are free to nominate or endorse candidates by whatever mechanism they choose.

• The law does not allow nominations or endorsements by interest groups, political action committees, political parties, labor unions, editorial boards, or other private organizations to be printed on the ballot.

• Candidates may mention nominations and endorsements in their voters' pamphlet statement.

• For the Primary, the order in which the candidates in each race appear is determined by lot draw.

• Even if only one or two candidates file, the office will still appear in the Primary.

Meanwhile, Presidential candidates will appear on the ballot as nominees of their official party. Also, the name and party preference from the primary ballot will stay the same on the general election ballot to avoid trickery.

They released a summary of their findings here.