HUNTINGTON -- In order for registered "No Party" or "Other" voters to vote for a presidential candidate in Tuesday's primary election, nonpartisan voters must request a Democratic or Republican ballot at the polling place.

If nonpartisan voters are interested in helping decide the hotly contested Democratic presidential nomination between Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton, they must request to vote on the Democratic ballot at the polling place. To vote for Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who is unopposed in the primary, they would need to ask for a Republican Party ballot.

An unaffiliated voter who doesn't ask to vote in a party primary will receive a ballot that only has nonpartisan races, such as a school board election.

This is the first year the West Virginia Democratic Party is allowing nonpartisan voters to vote in its primary. The process is the same for the Republican and Mountain parties. Nonpartisan voters have been able to vote in Republican elections for years.

State code prohibits poll workers from informing nonpartisan voters of multiple ballot choices whether verbally or through passed-out literature. If poll workers informed voters of the choice, they could be illegally influencing the voter's choice, election officials said.