The newly designed primary ballots that will be mailed to voters next week are trouble waiting to happen. IMPORTANT: please pass this information on to your Dem. friends and family members.

The problem with the "improved" all-in-one primary ballots is that in order for your votes* to be counted you MUST check one of the two boxes at the bottom of side one (where it says Democrat or Republican). These boxes don't appear to be CRITICALLY IMPORTANT so it would be easy to pass over them.

However, if you forget to mark that you are a DEMOCRAT, even if you've carefully voted for each of your favorite Democratic candidates, your votes will not be counted. If you are an INDEPENDENT and loathe to call yourself a member of one of the two major parties, you still MUST CHOOSE and mark the box for Democrat or Rep. and then vote on either the Dem. or Rep side of the ballot.

YOU CANNOT SPLIT YOUR VOTES or the votes on the side that's different from the box you marked will not count.

*Votes for non-partisan offices and ballot measures are not affected by this box-checking business.