WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats in the nation’s capital will get a chance Tuesday to weigh in on the race for the White House as the presidential election calendar enters its final days. Voters in Washington, DC, will cast their ballots in the Democratic presidential primaries, as well as for Congress and city offices.
President Joe Biden is the only major candidate left on the ballot in the city, which gave him a greater share of the vote than any state in the 2020 general election against then-President Donald Trump. After Tuesday’s contests in DC, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota, as well as two caucuses in Guam and the US Virgin Islands on June 8, Biden will be ready to officially accept the nomination he unofficially secured on March 12 .
D.C.’s city-run presidential primary will feature only the Democratic contest. Republicans held a party election in March, the first of two victories that former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley scored against Trump.
Voters will also decide the contested primary for the city’s non-voting delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives, as well as several seats on the City Council. The city’s unofficial U.S. House shadow seat and one of the two U.S. Senate shadow seats are also up for vote. Created in 1990, the Shadow Senators and Representatives are not officially members of Congress, but instead serve as advocates for DC representation and statehood.
While most city primaries on the ballot involve incumbent candidates running for re-election, the Ward 7 City Council Democratic primary is an open-seat race with ten candidates. The current mayor is Vincent Gray, who is retiring after suffering a series of health problems in recent years.
During the primaries, non-residents can vote for the first time for city offices, including Tuesday’s municipal elections, but not for presidents or other federal offices. Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are leading an effort to block the voting bill from taking effect before Tuesday’s primary elections. The measure passed the House of Representatives on May 23, but a similar bill in the US Senate was blocked, effectively leaving the law in effect. The issue of noncitizen voting has become a focus of Republican reporting.
Here’s what to expect on Tuesday:
PRIMARY DAY
The primaries will be held in Washington DC on Tuesday. Polls close at 8:00 PM ET.
WHAT’S ON THE BALLOT
The Associated Press will report vote totals and announce winners in the Democratic presidential primaries, as well as in the contested primaries for U.S. representatives in Congress, city council, shadow senator and shadow representative. Candidates for the presidential election include Biden, Marianne Williamson, Armando Perez-Serrato, as well as a spot for write-in candidates.
WHO CAN VOTE
Only voters registered with a party can participate in that party’s primaries. Republicans cannot vote in the Democratic primaries. Independent or unaffiliated voters are not allowed to participate in the primaries of any party.
DELEGATED ASSIGNMENT RULES
DC’s 20 pledged Democratic delegates will be allocated according to standard national party rules. Five at-large delegates are allocated in proportion to the citywide vote, as well as two PLEO delegates, or “party leaders and elected officials.” The city has divided its eight wards into two districts, with a total of thirteen delegates at stake, allocated in proportion to the voting results in each district. Candidates must receive at least 15% of the vote citywide to qualify for citywide delegates, and 15% of the vote in a congressional district to qualify for delegates in that district.
DECISION NOTES
Biden enters the DC primaries as the prohibitive favorite, as none of his remaining challengers have made much of an impact in any primary thus far. Early indications of him winning citywide at a level consistent with the overwhelming margins seen in most other contests held this year could be enough to determine the citywide winner.
In local races, five of the seven contested Democratic primaries feature incumbent candidates running for re-election, most of whom won their last primaries by large margins. The incumbent with the smallest margin of victory in the last primary is shadow Rep. Oye Owolewa, who won the 2022 Democratic nomination by a margin of 5 percentage points. The previous primary results for these five races will provide a good benchmark for how each incumbent is doing when the results come in on Tuesday evening.
Determining the winner in the Ward 7 City Council primary could take longer than the existing races, given the field of 10 candidates. Gray won a six-way primary in 2020 with just 45% of fewer than 12,000 votes cast. With four candidates still running and no candidate listed, this year’s race could come down to a relatively small number of votes.
The AP does not make forecasts and will only declare a winner if it has been established that there is no scenario with which the underlying candidates can close the gap. If no race is called, the AP will continue to report on any newsworthy developments, such as concessions to candidates or declarations of victory. The AP will make it clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.
In DC elections, recounts occur automatically in U.S. House of Representatives and City Council races if the margin is less than 1% of the total votes. The AP can declare a winner in a race eligible for a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.
WHAT DO TURNOUT AND FRONT VOTES LOOK LIKE
As of April 30, there were 450,750 registered voters in Washington. Of those, 77% were Democrats, 5% Republicans and 16% were not registered with any party.
In the 2022 primaries, turnout was 26% of registered voters in the Democratic primaries and less than 1% in the Republican primaries. About 76% of primary voters cast their ballots before the election that year.
As of Tuesday, a total of 31,421 ballots had been cast before the primary.
How long does vote counting usually take?
During the 2022 DC primary, the AP first reported results at 8:30 PM ET, or 30 minutes after polls closed. Election night tabulation ended at 11:59 PM ET with approximately 69% of the total votes counted.
ARE WE THERE YET?
As of Tuesday, there are 41 days until the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, 76 days until the Democratic National Convention in Chicago and 154 days until the November general election.
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Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2024 elections at https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.
