2024-03-06 03:08:00
Michigan’s primary put a spotlight on a real ballot option that Massachusetts Democrats and thousands of American voters will see during the 2024 primaries: “uncommitted” or “no preference.”
While the exact choice varies from state to state, the preference gained attention following over 101,000 ballots were cast for “uncommitted” on the Feb. 27 primary in Michigan, according to the AP.
A similar movement, called the “Vote No Preference Massachusetts” coalition, emerged in the Bay State on Monday.
The group, made up of several grassroots organizations across the Bay State, is pushing for Democratic voters to vote “no preference” instead of President Joe Biden and Democratic contenders Marianne Williamson and Dean Phillips.
These efforts in Michigan, Massachusetts and across several states stand as a rebuke of the Biden administration’s involvement in the war in Gaza and support for Israel. The war began following the Hamas-led sneak attack on Israel on Oct. 7 that killed 1,139 Israelis, while in Gaza at least 30,534 Palestinians have been killed, according to Al Jazeera.
Such protest vote campaigns were first reported on right before the New Hampshire primary, where the “Vote Ceasefire” campaign told voters to write in “cease-fire” to “draw attention to the urgent need to stop the violence in Palestine and the Middle East,” the Boston Globe reported on Jan. 17.
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But how many states have a “no preference” or “uncommitted” option?
On Super Tuesday alone, half of the states have an “uncommitted” line or write-in slot for the Democratic presidential primary ballots, according to Axios.
On March 2, blogger and political writer Josh Cohen, who goes by the name contact on his Substack newsletter, made a map of all the states in the country that do and don’t offer an “uncommitted” or “no preference” option.
Cohen excluded New Hampshire, Michigan, South Carolina and Nevada since those primaries and caucuses already passed.
Here’s how he broke it down into categories:
- Can vote uncommitted – Alabama, Alaska (called “undeclared”), Colorado (called “noncomitted”), Connecticut, Hawaii, Idaho (caucus), Iowa (mail-only caucus), Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts (called “no preference”), Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana (called “no preference”), New Jersey, New Mexico, Northern Mariana Islands, North Carolina (called “no preference”), Rhode Island, Tennessee, Virgin Islands, Washington, Wisconsin (called “unrestricted delegation”), Wyoming (caucus, called “undeclared”), American Samoa
- No uncommitted option, but can vote write-ins – Vermont, Oregon, Washington, D.C.
- No uncommitted option, most write-ins not tallied, but blank votes tallied – Maine, North Dakota (caucus), New York, Puerto Rico
- No uncommitted option, most write-ins not counted, blank ballets not counted – Arizona, California, Georgia, Illinois, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Texas, West Virginia
- No uncommitted option, no write-in option, blank ballots not counted – Arkansas, Guam, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Dakota
- No primary (”These states just canceled their primaries and handed all of their delegates to Biden,” Cohen wrote. “They won’t let you vote once morest him even if you want to!”) – Delaware, Florida
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