Can you vote 'uncommitted' in Arizona? What you need to know for the 2024 primary election

Progressive activists in several states have urged Democrats to vote in the primaries for alternatives to President Joe Biden to protest his handling of Israel’s military actions in Gaza.

Often they have asked people to vote “uncommitted” to voice their disapproval.

That’s not an option in Arizona’s presidential preference election on March 19. Ballots for Tuesday's election don’t have an “uncommitted” or “no preference” box, nor can voters write in a candidate of their choice.

Instead, activists in Arizona are urging other Democrats to cast their ballots for Marianne Williamson, the author and presidential candidate who has for months advocated a ceasefire in Gaza.

“We are advocating that pro-peace Democrats concentrate our votes for Williamson to show in one number on election night how many votes Biden still has to earn by dramatically changing policy on this humanitarian crisis,” Mohyeddin Abdulaziz, a Palestinian Arab American community activist and founder of the Arizona Palestine Network, said in a written statement.

So far, the success of protest vote campaigns has been mixed. In Michigan’s Democratic primary in February, the number of “uncommitted” votes exceeded the margin by which Trump won the state in 2016. Biden appears to have lost a sizable percentage of votes in Minnesota as well.

In other states, such as Massachusetts, the “uncommitted” vote was proportionally smaller than it was in the Democratic primary in 2012, when incumbent President Barack Obama was running for re-election, according to a Washington Post analysis.

Can I write a message on my ballot?

Stray marks, like writing a message on a ballot, often makes it difficult for vote tallying machines to read the ballot. That prompts a process called adjudication, in which bipartisan teams examine ballots to determine voter intent.

If the team can determine how a voter intended to cast their vote, it'll still count. But adjudication takes longer than counting with vote tallying machines, called tabulators. If a large number of ballots must be adjudicated, it can slow down results.

The Arizona Republic's Sasha Hupka contributed reporting.