On July 14, the California Secretary of State released the official totals from the June 3 primary, including all write-in totals. In the 15th State Senate district, no Democrat was on the ballot. Dennis Morris, a Democratic attorney in Pismo Beach, had filed as a write-in for the Democratic primary when he learned that no other Democrat was running. He polled 2,096 write-ins. The Republican incumbent, Senator Abel Maldonado, had also filed to have his write-ins counted in the Democratic primary, but Maldonado only received 533 write-ins.

Under California Election Code section 8605, no one may receive the nomination of a party by write-in votes, unless he or she receives a number of write-ins equal to 1% of the vote for that office in the last general election. So, even though Morris’ write-in total is very impressive, he cannot be considered nominated; he needed 3,689 write-ins to meet that standard. Since the California Constitution, since 2004, has said, “A political party shall not be denied the ability to place on the general election ballot the candidate who received, at the primary election, the highest vote among that party’s candidates”, Morris intends to bring a lawsuit, alleging that sec. 8605 violates the California Constitution.