DECISION TIME

Tomorrow is the New Hampshire primary as voters in The Granite State are headed to the polls to cast their votes on who should be the Democratic nominee for president.

But for those not in New Hampshire, you may have the opportunity to vote at the same time.

Today Colorado will start mailing out ballots for those that wish to participate in the nomination process for the primary occurring on 3 March. Democrats Abroad and 14 states will also be holding primary elections in an event called Super Tuesday: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Virginia. Several of these states, like Colorado, allow for voters to cast their ballots before election day.

NOTE: This upcoming paragraph applies to Colorado. Please confront your local state laws for what are the requirements to vote. If you suddenly discover that you are ineligible to participate in your state’s primary, pledge to get yourself registered to vote and others in the upcoming November election. Vote.gov is a good starting point as well as searching Google for your associated state’s secretary of state’s website.

And if you feel that your state’s voting laws are inadequate, look at changing them to what we have in Colorado.

Those who have affiliated with a party in Colorado will receive their party preference ballot in the mail. Unaffiliated voters will receive two ballots and have the choice to mail one out (hopefully they chose the Democratic ballot). In-person voting stations will open next week for those that wish to cast a ballot. Colorado also allows for same-day and online voter registration for those that need to make changes to their voter registration information.

Super Tuesday allows a presidential candidate to amass a large number of delegates and solidify their hold as the front runner for the nomination. As for others, it is the final sign that the road to the presidency might be over.

I don’t expect the leading four for the Democratic nomination - Biden, Buttigieg, Sanders, & Warren - to suspend their campaigns if any one of them meets less than their expected goals tomorrow night, but there will be reassessments of their individual campaigns going forward.

Biden has all but conceded New Hampshire to the other three and is focusing on winning Nevada and increasing his margin in South Carolina when Democratic base voters finally weigh in. Buttigieg is hoping for momentum from his narrow win in the Iowa caucuses to carry him to another victory. Sanders will probably need a large victory to recapture the magic he had from 2016 and reestablish his hold on the Democratic left lane. Warren needs to overwhelmingly exceed expectations for hopes of voters taking another look at her campaign before she has to make some difficult decisions going forward.

Colorado, as well some other states, will begin voting and a candidate could pocket some votes well before results are announced on Super Tuesday. At the same time, a candidate could suspend their operations, and the votes that might have benefited other candidates would be wasted. Polls can show voters second and third choices for a nominee as a way of presenting how people make their decisions as well which candidate benefits from who is eliminated throughout the nomination process.

Upon receiving my ballot, I plan on waiting to cast my ballot for this very reason. You, loyal reader, may feel the need to cast your ballot and just be done with it. I get that; that’s why I enjoy the whole early voting process and plan on exercising that option when ballots for November are mailed out.

I feel that with the viable candidates remaining I need to see what happens between now and when Colorado has their primary votes counted.

But the time to choose a nominee is quickly running out.

Make your decision wisely