Primary Elections

Register by Feb. 7 to vote in the California primary on March 7! Be sure that you are registered in the party of the candidate for whom you are voting. Otherwise your vote will be a straw vote and will not count for the convention delegates whose vote will nominate each party's candidate. Yes, we have an open primary and you may cross party lines, but if you want your candidate nominated, register in that party. You can change back after the primary to your "home" status. BOBBI COX Laguna Beach Here is a suggestion that would equalize the vote of every registered voter in the primary elections: Hold all the state primaries on the same day and have the person in each party who comes in second be the vice president candidate.

In the first broad test of California's new "top-two" election system, many candidates in heated races for Congress and the state Legislature have been campaigning earlier, spending more money and downplaying their party affiliation as they try to widen their appeal. Gone are the party primaries, except in the presidential race. Now all state candidates appear on a single ballot. Only those who come in first or second on June 5 will move on to the November general election, in which no write-in or other added candidates will be allowed.

Hours: Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. Where to vote: 1,613 neighborhood polling places or the Orange County Registrar of Voters office, 1300 S. Grand Ave., Santa Ana. ON THE BALLOT * Candidates to run in November general election for offices, including president and congressional and legislative seats. * Nonpartisan offices, including two county supervisor seats, several judgeships, and city and school board races.

Mitt Romney's big win in the Illinois primary didn't end the fight for the Republican presidential nomination. But it may all but guarantee that after repeated slips and stumbles, including a fresh one hours after his victory, the former Massachusetts governor will lead the GOP into the fall contest against President Obama. Rick Santorum, Romney's chief antagonist, is not going away any time soon. He is almost certain to notch a few more victories, perhaps as early as Saturday in Louisiana, the kind of heavily rural, religious and deeply conservative state that has repeatedly backed the former Pennsylvania senator.

Pressures are building on Honduras' unpredictable President Roberto Suazo Cordova to ease his grip on the country's electoral machinery and end a political crisis. Spokesmen for the country's labor movement are calling for primary elections before November's presidential election and have threatened a general strike if their demand is not heeded. High military officials are known to have counseled Suazo to listen to the workers.

Monday is the last day to register for the upcoming primary election in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Los Angeles Community College district. The election will take place April 13. New voters, including new citizens, must be at least 18 years old by election day to be eligible for registration. Voters who are already registered must re-register if there has been a change in address or name.

Three unsuccessful Republican candidates for state Assembly who had hoped for a speedy challenge of the March open primary are making an unexpected detour into federal court. After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last month that California's open primary was unconstitutional, the three candidates--Jim Righeimer and Bruce Matthias of Orange County and Robert S.

(As a general policy, The Times does not usually endorse candidates in partisan primary elections. We will, however, express a preference in most contests before the November general election.) Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors 2nd District--Kenneth Hahn 4th District--Deane Dana 5th District--Don Wallace District Attorney: Ira Reiner Judges of the Superior Court Office No. 1--Jerold A. Krieger Office No. 3--Jewell (Judi) Jones Office No. 4--Terry Smerling Office No. 10--Reginald A.

Proposition 198, the March 26 ballot's Open Primary Initiative, offers Californians the chance to choose elected officials who will be more responsive to the needs and more respectful of the views of the majority of their constituents. It would do so by removing party registration as a condition for voting in partisan primary elections. All voters, including the 1.

Gov. George Deukmejian said Wednesday he supports the idea of moving the June state primary election closer to the November general election as a way of reducing costs and shortening political campaigns. Responding to a question at a press conference, Deukmejian said he likes the idea of a September state primary. He recalled that when he was a state senator, he had proposed legislation to do just that, but the bill failed to pass.

American voters have fired two modern presidents after just one term, Jimmy Carter in 1980 and George H.W. Bush in 1992. Both suffered because the economy was in poor shape, and both faced disaffection within their own parties. But there was another thing those candidates had in common: They both faced relatively strong third-party candidates in the November election. John B. Anderson in 1980 and H. Ross Perot in 1992 both ran as independent centrists, and while they weren't the only reason the incumbents lost (Ronald Reagan won a majority of the popular vote in 1980)

Many Southern California lawmakers in hot primary contests have been raising money at a brisk pace ahead of the June congressional races, reports filed with the Federal Election Commission show. Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Valley Village) — who will face off against Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) in what many political experts believe could become the most expensive House race in history — brought in more than $800,000 between July 1 and Sept. 30, according to documents posted on the FEC website over the weekend.

France's Socialist Party selected a 57-year-old National Assembly deputy nicknamed "Monsieur Normal" to go head-to-head with beleaguered incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy in next year's presidential election. Francois Hollande won a convincing victory in a primary runoff Sunday against Martine Aubry, a former Labor minister. In his victory speech, Hollande said he was well aware of the "heavy and serious job" ahead of him as he seeks to unify the French left in order to bring it its first presidency for nearly 17 years.

Stan Craig, a Vietnam veteran and fundamentalist Baptist preacher here, winces at the idea of a female president. Yet he hesitated when he was asked recently to make a hypothetical choice between Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. "I probably would cast my vote for Michele," Craig said. His thinking: Romney is Mormon. Mormons, in Craig's view, are not Christian. "The devil wrote only one Bible," Craig said, "and Joseph Smith found it under a rock.

California Republicans voted Sunday to enact a sweeping end-run around the spirit of the "top-two primary" system adopted by voters, deciding to conduct a mail-in nominating process with all registered GOP voters before the primary election. "This is going to energize the party because you are going to have candidates that have to organize earlier, they are going to have to talk to Republicans, they are going to be held accountable by Republican voters," said Mike Spence, the conservative party activist who wrote the proposal.

Voters in seven states and the District of Columbia cast ballots Tuesday in the final round of primaries that will shape the midterm elections and, perhaps more interestingly, could help define the political parties for the next several years. For Democrats, Tuesday's vote is much like a bank shot on a pool table as they hope that the conservative tide of the "tea party" movement helps elect candidates who will have a hard time appealing to independents, thus aiding Democrats fighting to continue their control of Congress.

A proposed constitutional amendment backed by lawmakers combined too many issues into one ballot measure and must be split into two items, a state appeals court said Friday. Supporters of Proposition 62, which would set up a Louisiana-style open primary election, had asked the 3rd District Court of Appeal to remove from the November ballot a rival measure, Proposition 60.

A campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination that has pivoted on race and gender could be decided here today by another divide, the state's urban north versus the rural south -- pitting Ohio's popular governor against a cadre of big-city mayors. While Sens.

A Superior Court judge on Friday ordered Riverside County to tally more than 12,500 mail-in ballots that arrived a day after the polls closed in the June 8 primary, a decision that could alter the outcome of a neck-and-neck legislative race. A 12-vote margin separates Mary Salas and Juan Vargas in the Democratic race for state Senate District 40, which includes Imperial County and slivers of Riverside and San Diego counties. "It's very close, so we're certainly optimistic," said Barry Klein, campaign manager for Salas, an assemblywoman from Chula Vista who narrowly trails Vargas.

Meg Whitman launched two ads on Spanish-language television stations Thursday, part of an effort to woo Latino voters turned off by the Republican gubernatorial nominee's tough talk about illegal immigration during the GOP primary. One of the ads highlights Whitman's opposition to a controversial Arizona law that compels police to check the immigration status of those stopped on suspicion of a crime. It also says Whitman opposed Proposition 187, the 1994 California ballot measure that would have denied taxpayer-funded services to illegal immigrants.