LETTER FROM SAN FRANCISCO
Forget about Iowa, the archaic caucus and its shattered counts. California is a tech heaven. This year, primary school voters in the Golden State will be able to track their postal vote, using a Colissimo barcode. " Consumers are used to receiving notifications when they shop online, explained the returning officer. Now we offer the same service to voters. "
The key is to know who to vote for. Less than two weeks from Super Tuesday ("super Tuesday") on March 3, which will see fourteen states rule, including California, is panic. Voters cannot decide. Reason swings between the heart and the calculations. And the indecision can last until polling day. In New Hamsphire, February 11, 20% of voters made their choice at the last minute, according to polls leaving the polls. For once, Californians are no exception.
Until now, the California primary had been of no importance. It usually took place late in the season, in June, away from the Super Tuesday crowd. As if the giant of the West (40 million inhabitants) had the delicacy not to exploit its weight. In 2016, California gave Hillary Clinton 4.2 million votes ahead of Donald Trump. Since the slap in the election of the real estate tycoon, she wants to have a say. The primary has therefore been advanced. On March 3, 415 delegates will be nominated in California, six times more than in Iowa, Nevada and South Carolina combined. And almost 20% of the total required (1,990 delegates) to win the nomination.
The first ballots arrived in San Francisco on February 3, exactly the day of the Iowa fiasco. Since then, stress has increased further. No more procrastination: you have to decide. We telephone, we circulate the questionnaire Washington Post which tells you in twenty questions which candidate you are in tune with. As if it was one of the psycho tests of summer magazines: are you more like Elizabeth Warren or Joe Biden? Arianna, a young university student from San José, took the test. She came across Bernie Sanders, which didn't surprise her. But the night of the New Hampshire debate, she saw Pete Buttigieg and what she heard told him "Well liked" : "When he talks we feel that he has respect for people, and suddenly we have him. "
