Kristi Miller/Colorado Daily

Samantha Williams, left, waits while her friend, Nicole Gomez, right, registers to vote through New Era Colorado, a non-profit geared toward youth political activism, inside the University Memorial Center at the University of Colorado on Tuesday.

Young patriots who wish to celebrate all Fourth-of-July-weekend long might revel with a clearer conscience if they’ve taken care of one patriotic duty – registering to vote.

For the most basic point, there’s a primary election coming up on Aug. 12, and those who wish to participate in the primary must be registered to vote by Monday, July 14. For plenty of registration information, visit the Boulder County Elections Web site, www.VoteBoulder.org, or call (303) 413-7740.

But certain voters might need to take a little extra action. First and foremost, those who wish to vote in the two contested Democratic Party races – for the U.S. House 2nd Congressional District (CD) and the state Senate District (SD) 18 – must be registered Democrats to vote.

Most Democratic Party primary voters will already be registered Dems by July 14, but unaffiliated registered voters or even voters who have registered with other parties might still have a way to vote in the primary.

Hillary Hall, Boulder County Clerk and Recorder, said Monday that unaffiliated registered voters (URVs) can decide to register as a Democrat to vote in the primary right up until Election Day (Aug. 12). The URVs can affiliate at the polls during early voting (begins Aug. 2), or at the polls on Election Day, or when they apply for a ballot to be sent to them in the mail.

“But if you’ve registered any way other than unaffiliated, you have to affiliate for whichever primary that you want to participate in by July 14,” said Hall.

Basically, this means a member of any other political party recognized by the Secretary of State (SOS) may not register as a Democrat just to vote in the primary unless they do so on or before July 14. Voters may also re-affiliate as an unaffiliated voter or a member of another party after the primary.

It’s hard to say how many people will participate in the 2008 primary, but 30,780 residents voted in the 2004 county primaries – the last Presidential election year.

In 2004, there were contested U.S. Senate races in both the Republican and Democratic parties. In 2008, most Boulder County Dems will be able to weigh in on a contested and expensive 2nd CD race between Will Shafroth, Joan Fitz-Gerald and Jared Polis – and many will vote in a heated battle between SD-18 candidates Rollie Heath and Cindy Carlisle.

The bulk of CU students won’t be back in Boulder until early-to-mid-August, but Shad Marib of the non-partisan youth voting advocacy group New Era Colorado said many students who stuck around for the summer are aware of the CD-2 contest.

“Hopefully the students who are here right now are paying attention, because we have three good candidates that need to be listened to,” said Marib on Monday.

He said New Era is currently working to get people registered to vote, for both the primary and the Nov. 4 general election. He also said the local campaign for Barack Obama is actively working on building youth-voter registration, even though it’s not necessarily geared towards the primary.

“And by the fall, there are going to be voter drives everywhere,” said Marib. “We’re just going to have to find our place in the market, which I think we’ve established in making politics fun for young people.”

But back to the primary – Hall added one other factor that might influence primary voter participation.

The county’s 2008 primary and general elections will primarily be conducted in precinct polling places, but the county has also encouraged voters to sign up for mail ballots. According to county records, nearly 70,000 voters had signed up for mail as of Monday, and about 49,000 would be eligible to vote in a primary.

“I think what’s going to be interesting with this particular primary is the effect of people who have signed up for permanent mail,” said Hall. “We’ll have a lot of people receiving a ballot that might not have participated in a primary before, and we just don’t know how that’s going to play out.”

But those who don’t register don’t get to play at all.

Hall recommended that registered voters should check their registration information on the county’s Web site well in advance of the election for accuracy. For example, young adults who may have moved since the last election should make sure they are registered at the proper address, and to repeat – anyone who wants to vote in a “political party primary” must register with the proper political party.

FYI

For more about voting in Boulder County, visit the Web site www.VoteBoulder.org or call (303) 413-7740. For more about New Era Colorado, visit www.neweracolorado.org.

Contact Richard Valenty about this story at (303) 443-6272 ext. 126, or at valenty@coloradodaily.com.